Using Immigration Measures To Deal With The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

During his recent trip to NATO headquarters, which included a visit to Poland and a meet with Ukrainians there, President Biden announced the U.S. will take in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. Travelling with the President, ABC anchor David Muir indicated there were 10 million Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion. Included in that number are over 4 million people who have fled the country. Earlier this month the U.S. announced that Ukrainians in the U.S. will be added to those who are granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the next 18 months. What other immigration measures can be taken to help the refugees and to stem the flow of others leaving Ukraine?

Expulsions Of Russian Diplomats

According to the BBC and other news agencies, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic issued expulsion orders to a total of 43 Russian embassy staffers the other day. Several other nations have also recently expelled Russian diplomats. But Natalie Jaresko, an American who was a former Minister of Finance in Ukraine, in a statement published on LinkedIn said, “I do not understand why we have not yet cancelled the visas of all Russian visitors, business people and students.”

Russian Elites Not Against The War

According to the Guardian newspaper, on 17 March, 2022 a meeting between Russian functionaries and Russian cultural elites took place in Moscow. A statement released after the meeting said that “Russian cultural figures fully support Russia’s “special operation” against Ukraine and will act together on the side of the Kremlin on the “cultural front.” The article goes on to say this Russian “cultural front” is, “already open and making inroads into Europe. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, announced that only Putin is fighting against Ukraine and that the rest of the country is not to blame. So the Russian writers and poets who signed an open letter of support for Putin, published in the Literaturnaya Gazeta on 4 March, are not to blame … Meanwhile, the German PEN Centre opposed the boycott of Russian cultural products.” In the U.S. a group of Western liberals and libertarians bemoans the unfairness of extending sanctions to Russia’s elite, globe-trotting athletes and performing artists.

Why Russian Visa Cancellations Are Justified

Troubled by such developments, Bohdan Romaniuk, a Canadian lawyer and member of the Board of the Canada Ukraine Foundation laid out his views on why Russian elites currently in the West holding various immigration visas ought not to be coddled by our governments. He says, “Let’s start by cancelling the visas and/or work permits of Russia’s international superstars for the duration of Russia’s occupation of Ukraine.”

Romaniuk argues, “Sanctioning this class of Russian citizens would merely impose upon them the same treatment their fellow citizens are now experiencing. Yet the elites are different in one other important way. They are, “loved, if not adored, by their countrymen and have the power to sway public opinion … They have access to independent media in the West and by staying silent, bolster internal support for Putin’s ambitions.”

Romaniuk focuses on Russia’s multimillionaire NHL players and in particular, the most famous of all, Alexander Ovechkin. According to Romaniuk, the hockey star, “continues to unconditionally support Putin with statements like, “He’s my president.” Romanniuk argues that imposing visa sanctions on elite players like Ovechkin would motivate them to pressure their head of state to halt his rampage in Ukraine. He concludes, “Are we really so blind as to believe that sports can be separated from politics, especially in a country like Russia that treats sports as a form of international warfare and venerates victory however obtained?”

What Is The Next Immigration Move?

Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy has called on the U.S. to help his country in the war to stop the Russian invasion. It seems that is the only way to stem the outflow of migrants from that country. Nonetheless, in the face of so many people fleeing Ukraine, announcing help for 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and making a TPS declaration is hardly enough support from the U.S. As for what exactly should and can be done, my recent article in Forbes lays out such a plan. In the meantime, at the very least, employing immigration measures to cut back on the presence of Russian elites and others in the West is an interim step that may help.