Many sleep on the ground in a gymnasium converted into an improvised shelter in Tijuana, a suitcase holding their life’s possessions beside them. They are pending their number to be called out when they will get the opportunity to a border agent in hopes of being granted humanitarian parole and allowed into the U.S.
Despite the surge in refugees, only about 150 are allowed into the U.S. each day due to Customs and Border Patrol staff stretched thin. Entrances are expected to speed up in the coming days.
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Ukrainians fly first to Mexico as it is easier to get a tourist visa than apply for shelter. Under the Migrant Protection Protocols, otherwise known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, they are required to wait in Mexico until their asylum claim is processed. Only a small number of Ukrainians are being allowed in under humanitarian parole, an emergency bill that allows immigrants who would otherwise be unfitting for resettlement to remain in the country for up to a year.
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And while Biden said the nation would take 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, it’s not clear what a formal resettlement process would look like.
Since Russia’s Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, more than 4.2 million have fled the country, a large chunk of them resettling in Poland.
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Ukraine’s armed forces continue to fight against the invading Kremlin troops and recapture “key terrain” around the capital and other eastern cities, while Putin’s forces withdraw to refocus their efforts on the Donbas.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk today said in a message on Telegram that residents of the country’s eastern regions should evacuate "now" or "risk death" due to a feared Russian attack.
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“The governors of the Kharkiv, Lugansk and Donetsk regions are calling on the population to leave these territories and are doing everything to ensure that the evacuations take place in an organized manner,” she said.
The call for pressing evacuations comes as Ukraine says Russian forces are regrouping to establish a fresh offensive in the country’s east after withdrawing from the Kyiv region.
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Vereshchuk asked residents to cooperate with authorities, saying Kyiv would "not be able to help” them after an attack.
“It has to be done now because later people will be under fire and face the threat of death. There is nothing they will be able to do about it, nor will we be able to help,” she said.
“It is necessary to evacuate as long as this possibility exists. For now, it still exists,” she added.
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