The 55-year-old Ukrainian truck driver was hauling a load of cars into Oklahoma when he stopped for a routine inspection at a desolate weigh station.
The driver, Mykhailo Shekhtman, had fled Ukraine’s war with Russia, settled in Georgia under a Biden-era humanitarian program to assist Ukrainians. But on that cold February evening, Oklahoma state troopers took him into custody, believing he was unlawfully present in the United States, according to a Homeland Security arrest report. It showed he had no criminal record.
“I asked, ‘Why are you arresting me? On what grounds are you arresting me?’” he recalled in an October interview from a detention facility outside of Oklahoma City.
Mr. Shekhtman is among the more than 330,000 Ukrainians who reside in the United States through Uniting for Ukraine and Temporary Protected Status, humanitarian forms of immigration protection that allowed people escaping the war to temporarily live and work legally in the country.
But the Trump administration regards the entrance of many Ukrainians and other migrants under the Biden administration as unlawful. Some Ukrainians are now living in legal and financial limbo after the federal government suspended the Uniting for Ukraine program and is now considering whether to let the largest deportation protection program, Temporary Protected Status, expire.
For Ukrainian truck drivers, the crosscurrents have been even greater because of a massive federal and state crackdown on noncitizens holding commercial driver’s licenses. Multiagency sweeps have intensified in states such as Indiana, Oklahoma and Texas, entangling hundreds of immigrant truck drivers who have been detained during traffic stops and what used to be routine inspections at weigh stations and highway checkpoints. At least a dozen Ukrainian truckers were detained in Oklahoma and Indiana this summer, according to a representative for Ukraine.
Some Ukrainian truck drivers have been deported to countries like Turkey, where they have no ties, according to interviews with truck drivers and immigration lawyers. Others have been sent back to Ukraine, a country grinding through its fifth year of war, where residents face military enlistment, occupation and relentless Russian bombardment. The Department of Homeland Security did not disclose the total number of Ukrainian truck drivers who have been arrested or deported.
Mr. Shekhtman, who has been detained since his February arrest, is awaiting a hearing on whether he will be granted bond. Through his attorney, he provided documents showing he has repeatedly reported receiving inadequate food and medical care, describing deteriorating eyesight and kidney pain.
“I feel like I’ve been cheated,” Mr. Shekhtman said from detention. “I was invited here to be protected from the war, and so on. I hoped I’d come to a democratic country, and that everything here would be fine.”
In a statement to the The New York Times, D.H.S. confirmed Mr. Shekhtman’s arrest, saying the Border Patrol had previously arrested him after he unlawfully entered the United States on April 21, 2024, before the Biden administration released him into the country. Mr. Shekhtman and his lawyer assert that he had been granted permission to enter the United States before he arrived as part of the Uniting for Ukraine program.
The agency said Mr. Shekhtman had been evaluated by specialists for vision and bladder problems and that he “continues to be monitored and receives treatment for his acute and chronic medical conditions.”
On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced the results of the latest operation in Tulsa, Okla., standing with state enforcement officials in front of a big rig adorned with images of the American flag and a bald eagle. Over several days, officers across 15 states had stopped more than 1,000 commercial trucks, arresting about 40 immigrant drivers, including some with serious criminal charges, he said. The drivers hailed from 19 countries, including Ukraine.
“These individuals came over, and they’re putting those that are driving on the road with them in jeopardy,” Mr. Mullin said.
Defending the administration’s crackdown, he also contended that allowing unauthorized immigrants to operate commercial trucks was reckless and dangerous to public safety, saying many do not speak English.
The plight of Ukrainian immigrants has exposed deep rifts in the Republican Party and prompted clashes between immigration opponents and a coalition of evangelical groups, businesses and local lawmakers who have pressured federal lawmakers to shield Ukrainians from deportation.
Representative William R. Keating, a Democrat of Massachusetts, and Representative Brian K. Fitzpatrick, a Republican of Pennsylvania, and Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat of Ohio,have sponsored bipartisan legislation that would create permanent pathways to legal residency for Ukrainians. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican of Alaska, sponsored another bill in her chamber this year. Both bills, however, remain stalled.
The administration announced this month that Ukrainians could retain T.P.S. for now, but the program’s future remains precarious. “They pay taxes, their children are often in honor rolls in schools, they do their share,” said Anna Move, co-founder of the Leonid Foundation, which assists Ukrainian refugees. Yet without stability, she said, many are debating whether they must now go.
Enforcement against Ukrainian truck drivers has centered on the freight arteries running through the Great Plains and the Midwest. Karl Ahlgren, a licensed chaplain and diplomat representing Ukraine in Oklahoma, and Ukrainian community leaders have tracked more than a dozen Ukrainian truck drivers swept into immigration custody in Oklahoma and Indiana alone this summer.
At least five remain detained in Oklahoma, according to Mr. Ahlgren, who has visited them at Oklahoma detention centers. “These guys are the sole breadwinners for their families,” Mr. Ahlgren said.
Tim Tipton, commissioner of public safety in Oklahoma, called the enforcement operations critical to spotting human trafficking and preventing deadly crashes.
“This is a huge public safety issue in Oklahoma when it comes to somebody driving an 80,000-pound truck who has not been trained properly, can’t read or speak English,” he said.
The federal campaign against immigrant truck drivers began in earnest in April, when President Trump issued an executive order directing transportation agencies to enforce a long-dormant regulation requiring commercial drivers to read and speak proficient English.
Since then, federal officials have stopped issuing worker visas for commercial truck drivers, revoked the accreditation of thousands of truck driving schools and issued emergency rules to prohibit commercial driver’s licenses for asylum seekers, refugees and other immigrants with temporary legal status. The efforts escalated following two fatal crashes last year involving Sikh immigrant truck drivers that killed six people, leading to criminal charges against the drivers.
The pressure on Ukrainians in the United States is unfolding as Moscow has intensified its air assault in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Mr. Shekhtman recalled enduring constant missile strikes back in his native Vinnytsia in central Ukraine. He said goodbye to several friends and relatives who went off to fight in the war and never came back. He was a professional truck driver in Ukraine, Mr. Shekhtman said.
In April 2024, he arrived in the United States and found a home near Savannah, Ga. Once he underwent criminal background checks and obtained his work permit, he passed a state driving test, acquiring a license that allowed him to drive a small truck and trailer to haul passenger vehicles. The pathway had been well worn by other Ukrainians drawn to the industry for its substantial pay and established networks of Ukrainian and immigrant drivers.
But throughout his 2024 election campaign, Mr. Trump argued that President Biden had let in too many immigrants and that too many were exploiting temporary humanitarian programs. Since taking office, he has rolled back some of those programs and sought to restrict others.
Mr. Shekhtman said that before his arrest, he had filed an application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to extend his U4U humanitarian parole for two more years and had received an appointment date to provide his biometric data. But, he said, he missed the appointment because he was held in detention.
The post Trump’s Immigration Dragnet Sweeps Up Ukrainian Truckers Who Fled War appeared first on New York Times.
