Ukrainians in Chicago are fearful — and hopeful — of what a second Donald Trump presidency will mean for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s targeted war on their homeland, and for the hundreds of thousands of refugees now living and working in the U.S.
Trump’s vow to end the war in Ukraine in one day has been met with deep skepticism. His desire to make America a stronger foreign leader could mean emboldening Ukraine against Russia and its allies. But Trump could also choose to stop supporting Ukraine or force Ukraine into capitulation — turning Ukrainians’ worst fears into reality.
For local Ukrainians, Trump’s plans for mass deportations also bring into question whether an estimated 30,000 Ukrainian refugees in Chicago — who were allowed to enter the U.S. legally under an executive order issued by President Joe Biden — will be safe.
“Everyone really doesn’t know what’s going to happen to that program. It could be an executive order from President Trump that could end that program,” said Mariya Dmytriv-Kapeniak, president of the Illinois Division of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. “If that is taken away, that is the biggest fear, because there is new, other rhetoric that even Green Card holders might be deported.”
Fears for refugees in Chicago
The Biden executive order that allowed between 30,000 to 40,000 Ukrainian refugees to come to Chicago is a huge concern for local Ukrainians, according to Dmytriv-Kapeniak, a doctor who came to the U.S. from the Ternopil region 30 years ago.
The program allowed Dmytriv-Kapeniak to bring her two nieces to Chicago in 2022 and quickly obtain work permits. “They could get basically everything that Green Card holders, permanent residents” would, said Dmytriv-Kapeniak.
Biden in April 2022 created the “Uniting for Ukraine” program through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, establishing an avenue for Ukrainian citizens displaced by the war to apply for humanitarian parole in the U.S.
Ukrainians had to have a sponsor in the U.S., complete vaccinations and other public health requirements, and pass other security checks. That program was intended to last two years — but was extended for another two years in February. Without an extension, the program will end in 2026.
More than 170,000 Ukrainians were allowed into the U.S. under that program, according to the State Department.
“The City of Chicago being a sanctuary city, it’ll be a little harder to do that [deport refugees and Green Card holders],” said Dmytriv-Kapeniak, 49, of Ukrainian Village. “We also work with the City Council, and we have had that discussion, but still there’s a lot of fear about that specific program ending, and tens of thousands being in an uncertain position — or left illegal overnight.”
Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, have said they would begin their mass deportation plan by deporting immigrants who lack permanent legal status and face criminal charges. But Trump could also quickly end Biden’s executive orders — including programs that have placed Afghans, Haitians and Venezuelans under temporary protected status.
Push for more U.S. aid
For now, local Ukrainians are doing what they have been doing since the war began nearly three years ago: raising money, educating Americans about the horrors of the war, and fretting about what the end of aid to Ukraine could mean.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has rejected the White House’s request to include $24 billion in additional aid to Ukraine in an end-of-year stopgap bill, saying the decision is up to Trump. Johnson also said Trump’s victory “will change the dynamic of the Russian war on Ukraine, and we’re seeing that happen.
“It is not the place of Joe Biden to make that decision now, we have a newly elected president and we’re going to wait and take the new commander in chief’s direction on all that,” Johnson said, “so I don’t expect any Ukraine funding to come up now.”
Biden’s request would have provided aid to Ukraine through 2026 — with the expectation that Trump could pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to negotiate with Putin to end the war.
For many, the end of aid to Ukraine seems nonsensical — considering there has been some bipartisan support, and because a large share of money in aid legislation is being spent in the U.S. to pay for workers to produce weapons that are being shipped to Ukraine, or to replenish U.S. stockpiles.
“It’s only going to hurt him and his administration in the future, because if Ukraine does not win this war, there are a lot of countries like Poland… and many other NATO countries that are fully aware that they will be next,” Mila Ugryn, a Logan Square resident who emigrated to the U.S. in 2003 from the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk. “…If you think about it logically, it doesn’t make sense [to end aid].. It’s the least cost-effective way to support Ukraine. And if you compare the amount of money the United States is putting towards aid for Ukraine, how little it is in comparison to Israel [historically] and just other wars in general, it’s a very small cost.”
Mila Ugryn, a Logan Square resident who emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine in 2003, says it would make no sense for the incoming Trump administration to stop supporting her homeland in its defense against Russian forces. “…if Ukraine does not win this war, there are a lot of countries like Poland… and many other NATO countries that are fully aware that they will be next.”
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Some Ukrainians believe European allies will “step up” to support the war, whether or not the U.S. continues the same amount of funding.
“You see partners like France and England, I think they kind of realize the situation of what could happen if Russia won, and how dire that would be to them,” said Mike Kalynyuk, an Oak Park resident who was born in Ternopil. “Personally, I think those are the ones that are going to be stepping up, as well as Poland…the Europeans are going to have to step up.”
Watching from afar
Marta Farion, an attorney, is president of the Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America, which helps support students at Ukraine’s oldest university. The group’s mission prior to the war was to fund those students’ education. Now it’s also to send money for basic needs, like heat and the transformation of school basements into bomb shelters.
“These are students that lost their parents, lost their homes, and they had to escape to Kyiv,” said Farion, 77. “And the university took them in…I am in touch with them almost daily.”
Local Ukrainians are trying to live their daily lives in Chicago while staying glued to Ukrainian news and social media accounts. They also make regular check-ins with those on the front lines. Dmytriv-Kapeniak speaks daily to a close friend who is helping to hold the front line against Russian forces in the Donetsk region. Kalynyuk had two cousins serving on the front lines — though they were later released because they each had three kids.
“He told me stories like, ‘We don’t eat for three days and we don’t have ammunition,’” Kalynyuk said.
Ugryn posts Ukrainian war news daily to her Instagram stories, a grim juxtaposition of her life in Chicago to the bloodshed in her home country. But she still has hope, especially given Trump’s erratic nature.
“His unpredictability can be a plus for him and he tends to kind of make decisions on the fly,” Ugryn said. “I hope that the best case scenario is that he thinks three steps ahead…And I hope he just really thinks this through and understands that the way forward is for countries to support each other. Because as soon as you kind of decide that we don’t live in a global world, what ends up happening is the war that is happening.”