Mar 22, 2023

JFNA Successfully Advocates for Ukrainian Refugees to Remain in US

As a direct result of the Jewish Federations of North America’s (JFNA) advocacy on behalf of Ukrainian refugees whose immigration parole is expiring, the Biden Administration announced last week that those who entered the US at the Mexican border may remain here for another year. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, many of the more than 20,000 Ukrainians who arrived at the US-Mexico border to request asylum lacked a visa and were granted humanitarian parole, a temporary immigration status. Ukrainian refugee Oksana Stakhnevych, who was pregnant at the time, arrived in the US with her husband and two children in April 2022. “Nobody … really knew what to do next,” she noted. Having volunteered at a Jewish community organization in Ukraine, Stakhnevych was directed by her contacts there to the local Federation in Richmond and its Jewish Family Services. Both organizations, which helped settle the Stakhnevych family in Richmond, are part of a network of 18 Jewish nonprofits across the country, including the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, that have received a Ukrainian Resettlement Grant from a JFNA initiative to support local communities assisting refugees.