Norton Writes DHS to Express Concern with Racially Disparate Impact of Uniting for Ukraine Program
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security expressing concern with the racially disparate impact of the citizenship requirement in a program designed to help people fleeing the war in Ukraine resettle in the United States. Under the program, named Uniting for Ukraine, only Ukrainian citizens and their immediate family members are eligible. The letter, led by Norton, was signed by 24 House members.
"Uniting for Ukraine has a racially disparate impact by imposing a citizenship requirement for eligibility," the members wrote. "Only Ukrainian citizens and their non-Ukrainian immediate family members may have their application fees and consular processing waived under this program. Other third-country nationals and stateless persons who had been living in Ukraine before Russia's invasion, including refugees from Africa and the Middle East, must instead wait in limbo and danger while their refugee applications are processed through a backlogged U.S. refugee admission program."
The letter follows.
June 30, 2022
The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas
Secretary
Department of Homeland Security
2707 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20528
Dear Secretary Mayorkas:
While we applaud the administration's establishment of a humanitarian parole program for Ukraine, Uniting for Ukraine, we write to express our concern with the program's citizenship requirement, which restricts entry from some who are fleeing Russia's invasion.
As of June 1, 2022, approximately 6.98 million refugees have left Ukraine since the invasion.[1] This includes tens of thousands of third-country nationals and stateless persons who are not immediate family members of Ukrainian citizens but who had made Ukraine their home.[2] Many of these third-country nationals are refugees who had resettled in Ukraine after escaping conflict or persecution in their home countries.[3] Despite the universal outcry against Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United Nation's International Organization for Migration received verified reports of discrimination, violence and xenophobia against third-country nationals fleeing Ukraine and seeking entry to neighboring European countries.[4]
Uniting for Ukraine has a racially disparate impact by imposing a citizenship requirement for eligibility. Only Ukrainian citizens and their non-Ukrainian immediate family members may have their application fees and consular processing waived under this program.[5] Third-country nationals such as those from Africa and the Middle East who are fleeing Ukraine must instead wait in limbo and danger while their refugee applications are processed through a backlogged U.S. refugee admission program.
In keeping with the mandate of Executive Order 13985 to recognize and redress inequities in agency policy and programs that serve as barriers to equal opportunity, we ask that you remove the citizenship requirement from Uniting for Ukraine.
Sincerely,
/s/
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Member of Congress
/s/
Lisa Blunt Rochester
Member of Congress
/s/
Jamaal Bowman
Member of Congress
/s/
André Carson
Member of Congress
/s/
Dwight Evans
Member of Congress
/s/
Jesús G. "Chuy" García
Member of Congress
/s/
Raúl M. Grijalva
Member of Congress
/s/
Barbara Lee
Member of Congress
/s/
Carolyn Maloney
Member of Congress
/s/
James P. McGovern
Member of Congress
/s/
Gwen Moore
Member of Congress
/s/
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Member of Congress
/s/
Ilhan Omar
Member of Congress
/s/
Mark Pocan
Member of Congress
/s/
Ayanna Pressley
Member of Congress
/s/
Mike Quigley
Member of Congress
/s/
Bobby L. Rush
Member of Congress
/s/
Linda T. Sánchez
Member of Congress
/s/
Jan Schakowsky
Member of Congress
/s/
Albio Sires
Member of Congress
/s/
Melanie Stansbury
Member of Congress
/s/
Juan Vargas
Member of Congress
/s/
Bonnie Watson Coleman
Member of Congress
/s/
Nikema Williams
Member of Congress
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