Ukrainians and Russians are fleeing their countries in record numbers and seeking asylum in America. A growing number of the refugees have attempted to enter the U.S. from a border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico.
Refugees hope to call America home
“We’re just trying to decide where our new home will be,” a Ukrainian refugee said. “We have to rebuild our lives from the bottom, from the very beginning. It is extremely… I even shake when I talk about this.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 7,191 Russians and 1,301 Ukrainian have sought refuge in the U.S. since October 2021.
How are refugees getting here?
“I have one client who we are filing for asylum,” immigration attorney Andres Mejer said. “It took them weeks to get here. And by here, I mean to the southern border, get interviewed by Customs and Border Patrol agent and then detained and ultimately released and now filing for the right to stay.”
In May 2021, President Joe Biden raised asylum seeker admissions from a record low of 15,000 under former President Donald Trump to 125,000 a year.
Mejer said asylum applications and approvals have risen significantly relative to last year. As a result, he’s walking several Russian and Ukrainian families through this challenging process.
Some refugees made decisions before the war began
“So we pretended we were going on vacation to Mexico and then flew to Tijuana,” Maksim Derzhko, a Russian asylum seeker and anti-war activist, explained.
Mejer said many of the refugees fled well before the war.
“None of them said, ‘Oh, we knew the war was coming, and that’s why we came,’” Mejer said. “It’s, ‘My life has gotten difficult here, the things that you used to be able to do now I can’t, I can’t raise my family in safety.’”
DHS grants Ukrainians Temporary Protective Status
According to DHS, any Ukrainian refugee seeking asylum in the U.S. because of the ongoing war can apply for Temporary Protective Status. The department has also granted Ukrainians who entered before the war protective status for 18 months.