Last week, the White House said the “the vast, vast majority” of Ukrainian refugees who have fled Vladimir Putin’s scorched-earth assault prefer to remain in Europe. Yet U.S. officials also reported that they were overwhelmed by Ukrainians desperate to get to the United States.
Both things are surely true. Now as the flight of refugee numbers attains head-spinning proportions — more than 3.5 million so far, mainly women and children — the United States has stepped up to shoulder a share of what has become a crushing burden.
On Thursday, the White House announced a plan to resettle as many as 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in the United States. Officials said the Biden administration will also accelerate the reunification of Ukrainians, including those already in the refugee pipeline, with relatives in the United States. The move is in keeping with U.S. leadership in NATO and with its traditional role as a haven for displaced people in humanitarian crises.
The scale of the current refugee crisis in Eastern Europe is difficult to fathom. In less than a month, more refugees have fled Ukraine than were sent into exile by the upheavals in Afghanistan, South Sudan or Myanmar. In this century, only the civil war in Syria has forced more people from their homeland.
The main receiving countries are reeling. Chief among them is Poland, to which some 2 million refugees, half of them children, have fled. In the capital city of Warsaw, roughly the size of Phoenix, schools are enrolling about 1,000 Ukrainian refugees as students each day, a staggering influx. Medical care and food supplies are strained. Romania, Hungary and Moldova are under similar pressure.
Poland, Hungary and Romania are members of NATO, whose de facto leader is the United States. Moldova recently elected a staunchly pro-Western government. These countries need Washington’s help, now, to relieve at least some of the pressure.
The Biden administration has allowed some 75,000 Ukrainians already in the United States to stay and work here for 18 months, with the potential for extensions. But that does nothing for the refugees fleeing Russia’s onslaught.
IT IS TRUE that the Trump administration slashed refugee admissions to their lowest level in decades, decimating the resettlement infrastructure in the process. Nonetheless, the United States was still able to take in tens of thousands of Afghans, who fled the Taliban’s takeover of their country last year, under an emergency humanitarian “parole” program.
During Mr. Trump’s presidency, the United States forfeited its historic role as a world leader in refugee admissions, and by so doing sacrificed a measure of its moral authority. Mr. Biden now has a chance to reassert the standing we have lost. Taking in Ukrainian refugees in meaningful numbers is a good start.
