Article Title: The Ukraine Crisis: A Humanitarian Response Through Immigration

Article Citation: Semotiuk, Andy J. "The Ukraine Crisis: A Humanitarian Response

Through Immigration." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 7 Apr. 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.
Summary
Andy J. Semotiuk, a contributor for Forbes, wrote an article about how the United
States could help the Ukraine. In the last year, thousands of people have been killed
in the war in Eastern Ukraine. Over ten thousand are injured and almost one
million Ukrainians have been displaced. The conflict marked its one year
anniversary with reports of a lot more Ukrainian soldiers being killed. He got a call
from a woman named Iryna. She has two small children in Mariupol, Ukraine. She
said that she feared that there is an upcoming invasion from Russia coming to her
city. She asked him if there was anything he could do to help her and her country,
but there is no solution. The West has given assistance to people affected by war
and environmental disasters, such as the Vietnamese boat people, Haitian
earthquake survivors and victims of the current Syrian conflict. Semotiuk thinks that
the U.S. should adopt some immigration programs to help relieve some Ukrainians.
He says that this could be in Americas best interest because it would revive a sense
of Americas leadership when it comes to Russian aggression. He thinks our first
step should be President Obama making a public statement that we will help
Ukrainian victims and that they will review immigrant applications with more
compassion. The Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) and Deferred
Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) reforms could help Ukrainian immigrants currently in
the U.S. Under certain circumstances, some will receive legal status and legal
permission to work and it will relieve them of the fear that they have of returning to
their semi-destroyed country. A Temporary Protected Status (TPS) should also be
reinforced because it will not add to the thousands of internal refugees in the
Ukraine and will keep them in the U.S. for up to 18 months. Ukrainian immigrants
who are waiting for visas to become available, should now be approved with a quick
speed. Such Ukrainians should be given humanitarian parole and allowed to come
to the United States as soon as possible. Similar measures should be adopted by
Canada and other Western countries. According to NATO, Ukraine is the only
member country that has contributed to all NATO-led operations, so they are
especially worthy of all this assistance.
Reaction
I feel as though this is a great thing for the United States and also Western countries
to do. We have helped with the Vietnamese boat people, Haitian earthquake
survivors and victims of the current Syrian conflict, so why not help the Ukrainians?
Enabling these immigration reforms would definitely strengthen our relationship
with the Ukraine. It would also give us more time to come up with a plan to help the
victims of the crisis in the Ukraine. Andy Semotiuk wants to get his point across that
we need to aid the Ukraine because we would help increase the financial
remittances sent back to Ukraine and thus provide critical help as the nation tries to

rebuild. I also agree with him because they clearly need help and we should be
paying attention to them just as we did with other countries disasters. Helping these
people would very much help the United States in the meantime by strengthening
our relationship with NATO, also.