from refugees to deportees and sent to fight against Russia

According to the chain CNNdozens of people from Ukraine They have been detained by ICE and sent back to their country of origin. There they run the risk of being sent directly to the war front.

This case highlights the tension between strict enforcement of US immigration laws and the humanitarian implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The war lasted more than four years and required a high demand for military personnel on the part of Kiev.

Since returning to White House To face his second term, the president Donald Trumphas intensified repression against all types of immigration and has undertaken a campaign of mass deportations.

There has been such controversy over the actions of ICE, especially in Minneapolisthat the Republican has asked to reduce the emphasis on mass deportations of immigrants in an irregular situation, as recently reported by the newspaper The Wall Street Journal.

In this way, the main objective now would be to catch illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes. To date, the ICE tried to deport any illegal immigranteven if he had no criminal record.

From the plane to war

Volodymyr Dudnyk He is just one of the dozens of young people who have been returned by the US administration to Ukraine, despite the risk it entails for their lives.

Dudnyk, only 28 years old, explained to the CNN who was recruited by Ukrainian army officers almost immediately after arriving in Ukraine following his deportation from the US.

“When I was on the plane to Ukraine, I knew what was waiting for me and that I would be sent to the front. But I hoped they would at least let me go home first. Everything happened even faster than I imagined. I never made it home. “I haven’t been able to see my parents,” he declared.

According to him, he spent 51 days in basic training camp and then a few weeks training as a drone operator. He is now fighting on the front lines in eastern Ukraine.

Dudnyk has explained to the CNN who was detained by ICE agents last August in front of a courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvaniawhere he was to appear in court for allegedly drive without a license nor car insurance.

Although it was not the only time that he had had problems with the American justice system, he was only sanctioned by the North American administration for disorderly conduct or minor charges for traffic violations.

In parallel, he has explained the family drama of those Ukrainians who are deported, even if they have relatives in the United States or have been on American soil for two decades.

“A man who was traveling with me on the plane had two or three children, and he was also deported. Another was a 36-year-old man who arrived in the United States as a minor, 20 years ago. He barely speaks Ukrainian. He was also deported,” Dudnyk explained.

The group was flown to Poland and taken to the Ukrainian border by American deportation officials. They handed them over to Polish officials who escorted them across the border.

Ukrainian mobilization law

More than four years after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory, the army suffers from a serious shortage of soldiers, which has caused controls to send men of military age to the front to become increasingly common.

He State Border Service of Ukraine has assured the American chain CNN that, of the 45 men, 24 were wanted for compulsory military service and were handed over to the police, who took them to the recruiting office.

In Ukraine, the “wanted” status applies to those who have not updated their details or have violated mobilization rules. According to Ukrainian law, since the beginning of the war all men between 25 and 60 years old They are subject to mobilization.

As reported by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraineapproximately two million men are currently wanted for evading mandatory military service, and nearly 200,000 soldiers are absent without official permission.

Most of those men They have fled the country or are trying to hide of recruiting officers, who constantly look for those who try to evade military service.

These recruiting officers perform random document checks and they take anyone without a valid exemption to military training camps.

Deported after legally residing

After the outbreak of the war, the United States launched a program known as United for Ukraine (U4U), which allowed Ukrainian citizens to legally enter the country,

This initiative of the Biden Administration allowed US citizens sponsor Ukrainians who had fled their country because of the war and wanted to emigrate to the United States. They only needed to have the guarantee of a US citizen that they were not going to be left helpless.

Once approved, they were granted a humanitarian permit to two yearswhich allowed them to live and work in the country. After the initial two years, they could request a extensionknown as a re-entry permit.

This is the case of a Ukrainian couple who arrived in the country in 2022, Daryna and Zhenyathanks to this immigration program promoted by Biden.

In 2024, after finishing this residence permit, both requested an extension. The woman obtained it practically immediately, but explains to CNN that her husband had to wait a year until he was denied.

Despite all the maneuvers carried out by the lawyers, Daryna finally says that her husband had to leave the country on a plane. He ended up recruited by the Ukrainian army despite suffering a health problem.

“The current situation in Ukraine is that they are recruiting men even with disabilities more serious,” he denounces.

Julia Bikbovaan American-Ukrainian lawyer specialized in immigration and international law, explained to CNN that this scenario is not a unique case. Some members of a family are granted the conditional extension while others are not.

For his part, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security He attributed responsibility for the deportations to the measures taken by the previous government.

“The administration Biden seriously harmed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians by turning a limited, individual emergency tool into a mass admission program,” he said.