On March 6, 2025, Reuters reported that U.S. President Donald Trump planned to revoke the legal status of 240,000 Ukrainians in the U.S., with the news story citing four anonymous sources, including one senior official.
According to the anonymous sources, the Trump administration was planning to strip the legal status of 1.8 million migrants — 240,000 of them Ukrainians — who came to the U.S. during the Biden administration under "temporary humanitarian parole programs."
Following the report, social media users on Facebook (archived), X (archived), Threads (archived), Reddit (archived) and Bluesky (archived) repeated versions of the Reuters story headline. Snopes readers also asked us to look into the claim.
However, on March 6, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took to X (archived) to call the Reuters report "fake news" based on sources "who have no idea what they are talking about."
(X user @PressSec)
"No decision has been made at this time," Leavitt said.
Snopes does not rely on anonymous sources in its reporting and has not independently verified the sources used in the Reuters report. However, Trump administration policy, as laid out in a Jan. 20 executive order, did call for the termination of
Trump's order specifically called for the termination of a humanitarian parole program for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV). Pausing the CHNV program
Ukrainians in US left in limbo as agencies pause status applications
Following the Jan. 20 executive order "Securing Our Borders," the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Jan. 28 it was pausing acceptance of Form I-134A. Immigration officials
Form I-134A allowed Americans to apply to be financial supporters of Ukrainian migrants through U4U or Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants through CHNV. Pausing acceptance of the form meant that no new financial supporters could be accepted, and no travel documents could be issued under the programs, according to the Ukraine Immigration Task Force, a nonprofit helping Ukrainians fleeing war to come to the U.S
Both programs allowed nationals of specific countries to obtain short-term (usually around two years) lawful status in the U.S. and the ability to apply for work permits if they had a financial supporter and passed a vetting process.
At the time of this writing, it was unclear what would happen to Ukrainians who only held U.S. legal status under the U4U program should it be fully abolished.
A Jan. 23 DHS memo titled "Guidance Regarding How to Exercise Enforcement Discretion" instructed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and USCIS staff to review immigration cases for people who border officials previously paroled under programs like CHNV and U4U that were "paused, modified, or terminated" under Trump's Jan. 20 executive order. The memo asked staff to determine whether parole remained "appropriate" or whether the migrant should be placed in "removal proceedings."
According to an internal USCIS memo dated Feb. 14, 2025, and cited in reporting from CBS and the National Law Review, USCIS Acting Deputy Director Andrew Davidson asked staff to pause "pending benefit requests" from applicants who came to the U.S. under humanitarian parole programs, including U4U.
This pause would effectively mean that migrants with legal status under U4U could not transfer to a different legal status because officials would not process their applications. As U4U did not provide protection against removal, that meant that, for example, Ukrainians in the U.S. who only held U4U legal status would be subject to removal and have no way to apply for another legal status.
We have reached out to USCIS to confirm the existence and wording of this memo and await its reply.
Trump reply on TPS protections for Ukrainians in the US further muddied the waters
Confusingly, Trump on March 6 appeared to bring another, separate program into the discussion about the legal rights of Ukrainians in the U.S. While signing executive orders in the Oval Office, a journalist asked Trump whether he was "considering revoking the TPS [temporary protected] status for the more than 200,000 Ukrainians who live here in the U.S."
In his reply to the question, Trump said: "I'll be making a decision pretty soon." It was unclear whether Trump was referring to the TPS program, which did not feature in the Reuters report, or the U4U program, which appeared to be what the journalist was actually asking about. We have asked the White House for clarification on Trump's answer and await a reply.
TPS is a legal status that nationals of certain designated countries can apply for. Countries can be TPS designated for a number of reasons, including ongoing armed conflict. The TPS program is more extensive than programs like CHNV or U4U, as people with TPS status may work in the country, apply for citizenship when eligible and remain protected from removal while holding the status. U4U (and CHNV) and TPS are separate programs with separate application processes.
Ukraine has been a TPS-designated country since April 2022. In January 2025, Biden's Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas extended the designation through October 2026.
Should Ukraine's TPS designation end, Ukrainian TPS beneficiaries would once again be eligible for removal unless they held a prior legal status allowing them to stay in the U.S.