The White House on Thursday denied a Reuters report that President Donald Trump is planning to revoke the legal immigration status of nearly a quarter million Ukrainians who fled to the U.S. since Russia invaded.
Reuters reported that a top administration official and other unnamed sources informed them of the plan to revoke their immigration status by April.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the report as “fake news” Thursday morning.
“This is more fake news from Reuters based on anonymous sources who have no idea what they are talking about,” Leavitt said on X. “The truth: no decision has been made at this time.”
The Reuters report comes after a meeting between Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week devolved into a public spat that derailed a mineral rights deal and soured the U.S. relationship with Ukraine.
However, Reuters reported that the revocation was planned before that meeting.
Trump has now said Zelenskyy does not want peace and that he was canceling U.S. aid to the country and sharing intel. Zelenskyy then publicly expressed his gratitude for Trump and said he was willing to sign the mineral rights deal.
The White House has argued that Zelenskyy is not interested in signing a ceasefire with Russian President Vladamir Putin and is using U.S. support to prolong the war.
Zelenskyy seemed to bolster those claims when he said in a speech over the weekend that peace with Russia was “very, very far” away.
“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump said on social media in response to Zelenskyy’s remarks. “It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?”
Zelenskyy met with Ukrainians in Washington, D.C. during his visit to the U.S.
“It is crucial for us that Ukraine’s voice continues to be heard and that no one forgets about it – both during the war and after,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
Now those Ukrainians in the U.S. capitol could potentially face deportation, according to Reuters.
“People in Ukraine must know that they are not alone, and that their interests are represented in every country, in every corner of the world,” Zelenskyy added.
