Flames and smoke billow from buildings throughout mass Russian drones and missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital in July 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Oleksii Filippov/AFP through Getty Pictures
disguise caption
toggle caption
Oleksii Filippov/AFP through Getty Pictures
The U.S. deported 50 folks to Ukraine this week, a Ukrainian border official mentioned on Tuesday, in what seems to be the only largest such deportation from the U.S. because the nation has been at warfare with Russia.
The flight landed close to the Polish border within the early hours on Monday. Since Russia’s invasion in 2022, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported 105 Ukrainians in complete, with 13 within the final quarter of 2024, in response to the newest information accessible in ICE’s publicly accessible tracker.
The Trump administration initially wished to ship 80 folks on the flight, in response to Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the US. That authentic listing additionally included no less than one individual that Ukraine had beforehand been unable to assert as a citizen of the nation.
It wasn’t instantly clear why solely 50 folks out of the group of 80 ended up in Ukraine.
Immigration legal professionals have raised issues that these deported to Ukraine might be conscripted to combat within the warfare. All males in Ukraine from ages 25 to 60 are eligible to be drafted, although some ladies and youthful folks have additionally volunteered. Whereas U.S. legislation permits deportations, together with to international locations that persons are not initially from, home and worldwide legal guidelines prohibit deportations to put the place somebody could face violence, persecution or torture.
The Trump administration has brokered offers with international locations with infamous human rights data or who’re dealing with battle, together with with South Sudan, Libya, Eswatini, Rwanda and El Salvador, to obtain deportees from the US, because it seeks to ramp up mass deportations.
Six of the 8 males deported to South Sudan over the summer season are nonetheless there, in response to their legal professionals, whereas the Related Press reported that these despatched to the different international locations have been imprisoned there.
“At the moment, border guards have ensured their registration within the border relation for entry into Ukraine in accordance with the principles established by legislation,” Andrii Demchenko, spokesman for Ukraine’s State Border Service, informed NPR. “It’s price noting that Ukraine accepts its residents in any case.”
The spokesperson mentioned Ukraine would settle for any of its personal residents who had been deported from the U.S.
The embassy didn’t reply questions concerning what would occur to folks deported to the nation.
“It needs to be famous that deportation is a broadly used authorized mechanism supplied for by the immigration legal guidelines of most international locations around the globe,” Stefanishyna mentioned in an announcement supplied to NPR. “It’s a routine process utilized to all international nationals and stateless individuals who violate the phrases of their keep in the US, no matter their nationality.”
One migrant first profiled by NPR fought quick deportation
Eric Lee, an immigration lawyer with a shopper on the flight, mentioned the detainees embrace individuals who have lived within the U.S. since they have been kids.
“Many have U.S. citizen spouses and kids. Some don’t even communicate Ukrainian, and others are usually not even Ukrainian residents, having been born within the Soviet Union earlier than Ukraine existed as a separate nation,” Lee mentioned in an interview.
Considered one of Lee’s purchasers, Roman Surovtsev, was just lately transferred via a number of detention facilities in Texas in preparation for the deportation to Ukraine, whilst his attorneys proceed to combat his elimination in courtroom.
In line with Justice Division courtroom filings, the administration had meant to place him on the flight. NPR confirmed he ended up not being deported after an immigration courtroom stayed his deportation hours earlier than the flight, whereas his case was reopened in immigration courtroom.
Surovtsev, who lived in Dallas together with his U.S. citizen spouse and two kids, was born within the Soviet Union. He got here to the U.S. as a refugee, however misplaced his inexperienced card when he was a teen when he pleaded responsible to a carjacking in California.
As NPR has beforehand reported, the U.S. beforehand tried and didn’t deport Surovtsev to Ukraine, which was unable to supply the required journey paperwork for deportation. For years, Surovtsev accomplished yearly check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement till he was detained throughout his go to in August. ICE then tried to offer him deportation paperwork, however these papers have been in Ukrainian, a language he doesn’t communicate.
His crew of legal professionals was in a position to vacate his conviction and transfer ahead with reinstating his inexperienced card. Nonetheless, Surovtsev has remained in detention.
U.S. District Decide Ada Brown, who was appointed by President Trump, initially blocked Surovtsev’s elimination earlier this month via Jan. 13 however reversed her choice just a few days later, stunning Surovtsev’s attorneys.
“He’s prone to obtain his inexperienced card as soon as once more very quickly. And he has additionally not been given the chance to specific his worry of being deported to an energetic warfare zone,” Lee mentioned.
A DHS spokesperson mentioned in an announcement that Surovtesev has already obtained due course of.
“He obtained full due course of and was ordered eliminated by an immigration choose on November 4, 2014 — over a decade in the past,” the spokesperson wrote. “Beneath President Trump and Secretary Noem, should you break the legislation, you’ll face the implications. Prison unlawful aliens are usually not welcome within the U.S.”
