Trump Immigration Crackdown Leads to Hundreds of Russian Deportations

The Donald Trump administration has implemented a broad immigration crackdown, significantly reducing asylum, refugee, and humanitarian parole programs. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security reports that more than 600 Russians and Ukrainians have been deported over the last two fiscal years as a result of these policy shifts.

This crackdown has affected individuals who entered the U.S. through legal protocols, such as Bogdan, a Russian citizen and former language tutor who fled the Russian military draft. After entering through a legal port of entry in Tijuana, Mexico, and applying for asylum in Minnesota, Bogdan was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Eagan, Minnesota, in December.

Bogdan is currently held at the Prairie Pines detention center in Louisiana and is scheduled for a hearing before an immigration judge on March 21. His legal counsel asserts that he has no criminal record and warns that deportation could result in imprisonment or forced conscription into the war in Ukraine.

Susan Fratze of the Migration Policy Institute stated that these changes represent a dramatic shift in how the United States positions itself on humanitarian issues globally.