Russia’s invasion in February 2022 displaced millions of refugees, most of them women and children, triggering the largest refugee exodus in Europe since World War II. As other European countries like Poland and Germany absorbed these refugees, the U.S. quickly followed suit, with President Biden vowing to welcome 100,000 Ukrainians.

In April 2022, the Biden administration created an unprecedented program known as “Uniting for Ukraine,” allowing an unlimited number of Ukrainians sponsored by Americans to come to the U.S. and work here legally without having to go through the lengthy visa process.

In two years, U.S. immigration officials have approved more than 236,000 cases under the Uniting for Ukraine program, according to the Department of Homeland Security. As of the end of March, more than 187,000 Ukrainians had arrived in the U.S. under the policy.

Another 350,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the U.S. outside of the sponsorship process since the start of the Russian invasion, mainly through temporary visas, according to DHS.

Republican-led states, for example, have filed lawsuits against virtually every major Biden administration immigration policy, including a similar sponsorship program for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. But the Uniting for Ukraine program has not been challenged in court. In fact, some Republican lawmakers have expressed support for welcoming Ukrainian refugees.

    • @djsoren19
      link
      fedilink
      217 months ago

      Republicans don’t have brains though, so the data is meaningless to them.

      The actual reason is that Ukrainians are white, and so they’re considered “good immigrants” whereas all the immigrants from LAM are brown, and so are “bad immigrants.”

        • @djsoren19
          link
          fedilink
          107 months ago

          Not really, since many of the immigrants from Latin America are Catholic/Christian themselves. It’s why you’ll even bizarrely see latino communities in the U.S. supporting Republicans, because their moral ideologies align.

          With U.S. conservatives, it really is easy enough to just look at skin color. Republicans don’t have enough brain power to look beyond that.

            • @djsoren19
              link
              fedilink
              2
              edit-2
              7 months ago

              Yeah, but they’ve also realized they’re now a minority and have to band together against the diversity of America.

              Don’t worry, if they ever managed to drag us back to their 1920s Segregationist America dream, then they’ll be happy to start tearing each other apart over those kinds of differences. Some of the really fringe lunatics are already willing to do so, but the party line that Republicans represent just wants them praying to an American God.

        • @Beetschnapps@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          5
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          It’s important to some people. It’s not important at all to republicans if putin disagrees.

          A republican party with members spending the 4th of July in Moscow would take putin’s propaganda slandering Ukrainians over the bible itself 10 times out of 10.

    • @catloaf@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      97 months ago

      Everyone with a brain, i.e. not bigoted regressives like Republicans or the Tories.