‘Devastating.’ Thousands of KY Ukrainian refugees could lose legal status in April
Tetiana Soloshchuk’s phone started beeping and ringing March 6.
It hasn’t stopped.
“I don’t even know how many phone calls I’ve received,” Soloshchuk, a Ukrainian refugee, said through a translator recently. “My phone rings on the hour every hour.”
On March 6, President Donald Trump said he was considering rolling back a President Joe Biden era program called the humanitarian parolee program that many Ukrainians refugees used to enter the country.
Reuters and other media outlets have reported a decision on whether to revoke the humanitarian parole program could come as early as April.
If Trump revokes humanitarian parole status that means possibly thousands of Ukrainian refugees in Central Kentucky would lose their legal right to be in the United States and could possibly be on a fast-track to deportation.
Mary Cobb, director of the Lexington office of Kentucky Refugee Ministries, said her agency has tracked at least 800 Ukrainian refugees that have entered the country over the past two years through the humanitarian parole program.
Lexington Refugee Ministries provides a host of services to refugees who enter the country legally.
“This would be hugely devastating to Central Kentucky,” Cobb said.
Soloshchuk and others in the Ukrainian community in Central Kentucky— the majority live in Jessamine, Fayette and Woodford counties— thinks the number could be as high as 3,000 people who used the humanitarian parole program and now live, work and send their kids to school in Central Kentucky.
Another type of immigration status, temporary protected status, that many Ukrainians have successfully applied for and received, people can’t access or have been told the program is frozen, Soloshchuk said.
That temporary protected status will keep Ukrainians fleeing war in the country until October 2026. It’s not known how many Ukrainian refugees have successfully be granted temporary protected status, sometimes referred to as TPS.
Shannon Church Egan, a Lexington-based immigration lawyer, said she has heard from some Ukrainian clients who are worried about their status given the uncertainty.
“Ukrainians who fled Russian aggression in their home country and came to Kentucky seeking safety and stability understandably fear being forced to return to an active war zone,” Church Egan said.
“If TPS does disappear, recipients would lose the authority to be lawfully present in the U.S. and would need to find another way to obtain lawful status - by seeking asylum if eligible, pursuing a family-based or employment-based petition, etc.”
No place to return to
Soloshchuk moved here from Ukraine three years ago at the start of the war. She first stayed with a childhood friend in Jessamine County who helped her and her family settle in the United States. She has a law degree but also empathy for newly-immigrated Ukrainians who feel lost, unsettled and worried about family in Ukraine as they try to navigate life in this country.
She felt that too when she first moved here, Soloshchuk said.
She recently set up a nonprofit to help Ukrainian refugees called With Ukraine in Heart. She can provide advice and financial help but she can’t take away the uncertainty, she said.
“They don’t know what to expect. They have no place to return to. We left because of the war. They have no stability.”
Sergey Tsymbalyuk immigrated to the US in 1998 as a child but has lived in Central Kentucky since 2014.
He said people followed the law and the promise the US government made them when they came to the country through the humanitarian parole program. The program started at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“We are very thankful to the United States government and to all of the officials here,” Tsymbalyuk said. “Ukrainians want to be helpful. We want to be useful. “
Tsymbalyuk said he and others know dozens of Ukrainians who came to Kentucky in the past three years who have started their own companies, employing Ukrainians and other residents.
“The economic impact would be disastrous,” Soloshchuk said if the humanitarian parole program was revoked and possibly thousands of people who are now earning wages, paying taxes and investing in companies were forced to leave.
Others don’t know if they should sign leases for apartments they may not be able to live in come April.
In addition, others are still trying to help support family members still in the Ukraine. Many want to eventually return to Ukraine but can’t because of the war, she said.
Most had to sell homes and businesses in Ukraine to afford to come to the United States to escape the war, Soloshchuk said.
The uncertainty is impacting the mental health of refugees as their fate and hope for stability has played out on national television over the past three months of the Trump administration, Soloshchuk said.
Tsymbalyuk watched the testy exchange between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 28 on television.
“My stomach just dropped,” Tsymbalyuk said. Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian actor and comedian. At first, many Ukrainians thought the live, fiery verbal banter between the two world leaders was a joke, Tsymbalyuk said.
Later Zelenskyy apologized. Trump cut off some aide to Ukraine after the exchange but later restored it after Ukraine agreed to the United States proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.
On Tuesday, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to an immediate ceasefire against energy infrastructure but negotiations stopped short of a 30-day ceasefire.
But the stress is mounting for everyone in the Ukrainian community, Tsymbalyuk said.
“I’ve gone gray,” he joked.
Trump has also flip-flopped in other areas in addition to his stance on Ukraine. He has announced tariffs and then delaying implementation after other countries announced counter-tariffs. It’s possible Trump will back off his pledge to nix the humanitarian parole program too.
“We’re not looking to hurt anybody, we’re certainly not looking to hurt them, and I’m looking at that,” Trump told reporters March 6.
“There were some people that think that’s appropriate, and some people don’t, and I’ll be making the decision pretty soon.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
