President Joe Biden said Thursday that the sponsorship program, dubbed "United for Ukraine," would contribute to the administration's goal of accepting up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing the conflict that followed Russia's invasion earlier this year.
"This program will be fast. It will be streamlined. And it will ensure the United States honors its commitment to ... the Ukrainian people [so they] need not go through our southern border," Biden said.
Under the new program, Ukrainians can obtain up to two years of humanitarian parole in the U.S. if they were residents of Ukraine as of Feb. 11, have a U.S. citizen sponsor such as a family member or nongovernmental organization, and pass security and health checks including vaccinations. Parolees would be eligible to obtain work permits in the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which will administer the program, will start accepting applications through its website starting April 25, according to a Thursday news release.
The agency urged Ukrainians not to travel to Mexico, saying those who tried to cross the southern U.S. land border after the launch of the new program would be refused.
Immigration advocates generally welcomed the announcement of the new program, but they also voiced reservations about the feasibility of the fast processing times the administration promised.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP Pro Bono Counsel Ashley Huebner, who is currently working on Ukraine immigration issues, pointed out that the administration has approved only a few hundred of the tens of thousands of applications for humanitarian parole submitted by Afghans in the wake of the U.S. military withdrawal last year.
"Just by comparison, it seems quite ambitious," Huebner said.
Naomi Steinberg, vice president of U.S. policy and advocacy at the refugee aid group HIAS, said she supports quick action on Ukrainians' bids for protection but worries that speeding up adjudications could shift resources away from other priorities.
"It should not be at the expense of other people who have been waiting for years for their cases to be processed," Steinberg said.
Julia Gelatt, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, noted that the parole protections could leave Ukrainians in limbo if they decide they want to stay in the U.S. longer than two years.
"There may soon be questions about a path to permanent residence to Ukrainians who come in through the program," Gelatt said.
The announcement of the new program on Thursday follows a decision earlier this week to expand the number of Ukrainians already in the U.S. who can seek temporary protected status, moving forward the date by which they must have arrived in the U.S. to allow those who came later to benefit from the policy.
Ukrainians must have arrived in the U.S. before April 11 to be eligible for temporary protected status, meaning anyone admitted under the new program would not qualify.
In addition to unveiling the new pathway to immigration parole for Ukrainians, the Biden administration on Thursday also announced another $800 million package of security and military assistance to Ukraine, alongside $500 million in economic assistance.
The military assistance, which will include howitzers and drones, will bring the total amount of U.S. military aid since the start of the war to more than $3.4 billion, the U.S. Department of Defense said Thursday in a news release.
--Editing by Vaqas Asghar.
Update: This article has been updated to clarify Huebner's comments about Afghanistan.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the name of HIAS. The error has been corrected.
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