“I hope the U.S. administration will take some sort of action to help those people evacuate,” said Aleksey Shtivelman, a Ukrainian-American and international dispute resolution lawyer at the law firm of Shutts & Bowen in Miami. “The U.S. has issued previous emergency declarations regarding refugee admissions.”

Shtivelman, who has clients in both Ukraine and Russia, was born in the Black Sea port city of Odessa, the scene of intense fighting. He moved to New York via Israel in the 1990s, and has relatives in New York, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association is urging the administration to expedite cases of Ukrainians who are eligible to migrate to the U.S.

“AILA calls on the Biden Administration to immediately ensure that Ukrainian nationals who may be eligible to come to the United States may safely and expeditiously do so and to ensure that we do not send people back to danger,” said Allen Orr, president of the Washington, D.C.-based association in a statement.

William Gerstein, a Fort Lauderdale immigration lawyer with Gerstein & Gerstein P.A., said Ukrainians currently visiting the U.S. could be granted temporary protected status. The U.S. has granted the status to Venezuelans living in the country after they fled the authoritarian regime of strongman and disputed President Nicolás Maduro.

CBS News, citing unidentified sources, reported Friday that the Biden Administration is considering protecting some Ukrainians now in the U.S. from deportation. The protection would come either through TPS or so-called Deferred Enforced Departure orders.

“U.S. citizens with Ukrainian family have always had the ability to sponsor their family but may not have thought to act on it in the past,” Gerstein said. “For an individual to be brought to the U.S. that does not have a tourist visa or cannot get one, there is humanitarian parole available for situations such as these.”

Under humanitarian parole, refugees with “a compelling emergency” and an “urgent humanitarian reason” may be allowed to temporarily enter the United States, according to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.

Refugee status is granted indefinitely and has no expiration date. But refugees are required to apply for permanent residency or green card status a year after living in the U.S., according to the agency.

Refugees talk outside of a temporary refugee shelter in a cultural center run by the municipality of Zahony, Hungary, near the Ukrainian border on Friday, Most Ukrainian refugees arriving in Hungary have relatives to stay with, but some don’t have anywhere to go. It remains unclear whether or how many the United States might accept as the Russian invasion unfolds.

Refugees talk outside of a temporary refugee shelter in a cultural center run by the municipality of Zahony, Hungary, near the Ukrainian border on Friday, Most Ukrainian refugees arriving in Hungary have relatives to stay with, but some don’t have anywhere to go. It remains unclear whether or how many the United States might accept as the Russian invasion unfolds. (Anna Szilagyi/AP)

Gerstein said he has one client who lives close to the hotly contested Donbas region in the southeast of Ukraine.

“They are trying to hunker down and not be on the move,” he said.

Refugees seeking to stay in the U.S. “are a more complex lot” than those living here under temporary status, lawyers say.

Both take considerable time, said David Abraham, professor emeritus of law at the University of Miami School of Law who specializes in immigration and refugee law and the political economy of Europe.

“The normal route would require one or two things: an asylum application which would require getting to the U.S. and asking at the airport for asylum on the grounds of persecution back home,” Abraham said. “That process is one at a time and you have to get here to do it.”

The other route takes refugees through camps managed by the United Nations “and that process can take two years,” Abraham said.

Eligibility for refugee status is determined on a case-by-case basis through interviews with officers with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, according to the agency’s website.

During the interview, an officer examines “all relevant evidence, including testimony.” The agency considers “the conditions in the country of origin” and evaluates the person’s credibility.

“We also confirm that security checks have been completed and the results of the checks are reviewed and analyzed before approval,” the agency says.

But as the invasion and subsequent geo-political picture unfolds, it is unclear about where Ukrainians will want to end up if their country is overtaken.

Open arms from European Union

According to the Associated Press, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Italy are taking in people fleeing the conflict.

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Exacerbating the pain is the division of family members and a fierce loyalty to their country. Most refugees arriving in neighboring countries are women, children and the elderly, according to reports. That’s because men of military age are required to stay and help defend the country.

“If there is any chance to return, a lot of people will want to return to it,” Abraham said.

For now, Poland, which borders Ukraine on the west, is a prime destination for those seeking immediate refuge. But Abraham, citing uneasy historical relations between the two countries, suggested Poland may be more of transition point for Ukrainians than a long-term landing spot.

“Depending on the reception of places like Poland, which may be initially warm out of anti-Russian feeling, there is still a lot of xenophobic sentiment in Poland,” he said. “The history of Polish-Ukrainian relations is not a happy one.”

He suggested Poland’s “primary value is its membership in the European Union which enables you to get to Berlin or Paris or a lot of more desirable places. I think the overwhelming majority will want to go home.”

David Lyons

David Lyons is a business writer for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He is a past editor-in-chief of ALM’s Daily Business Review in Miami and formerly worked for the Miami Herald, Miami News, Fort Lauderdale News, Albany (N.Y.) Times-Union and Schenectady Gazette. He holds a degree in political science from Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-ne-ukrainian-us-migration-options-20220226-boxtfetoajay3odycjqkc6q6za-story.html