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Hundreds of Ukrainians fleeing war have found work and community stability in Alaska.

But a federal pause on programs that aid immigration and resettlement now threaten their ability to stay.

[Speaking Russian] What do these new residents and other refugees and immigrants here need to know about the federal changes and their rights?

We'll discuss it right now on Alaska Insight.

Immigrants have helped build our nation's infrastructure.

Alaska is home to immigrants and refugees from across the world.

Our state benefits from a wide range of different skills to meet Alaska's labor needs.

And communities are enriched by a mix of cultures.

But programs that bring refugees and immigrants to our state are under threat.

Tonight, we'll learn about who is at risk and what they can do to protect themselves.

Before we get to that discussion, here are some of the top stories of the week from Alaska Public Media's collaborative statewide news network.

Governor Mike Dunleavy ordered a freeze last week on most state hiring out of state travel and new regulations as oil prices tumble.

Oil production in Alaska is expected to increase in the coming years as new projects come online.

But at the same time, the price of a barrel of North Slope crude fell more than $10 in April, and prices are expected to fall further in the coming months.

Don Levy's office declined an interview request on Monday, but in a statement said following prices meant the state had no choice but to institute the freezes.

Some agencies, especially those dealing with public safety, are exempt from the freeze.

Lawmakers had mixed responses.

Some agreed with the governor's assessment of state finances, while others raised concerns about how this could affect state services and a third Republican entered the race to be Alaska's next governor.

Conservative activist Bernadette Wilson declared her candidacy on the steps of the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on Tuesday.

Wilson is a business owner who has also led conservative policy groups and been active in conservative politics in Alaska.

She pitched herself as a political outsider in an interview.

She's a sponsor of the latest ballot initiative, seeking to repeal Alaska's open primaries and ranked choice voting.

Until recently, she was the interim executive director of the Alaska Policy Forum, a conservative think tank.

When asked about her priorities, Wilson brought up the state's failure to pay permanent fund dividends, in line with a formula in state law that lawmakers have essentially ignored since the mid 20 tens.

She also said she would reduce the state workforce in order to address the state's looming budget crunch.

Fairbanks Republican Clark Bishop and Republican Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom also filed letters of intent to run for governor this month.

Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance says her administration is working to ramp up the clearing of major homeless camps.

At a press conference on Wednesday.

LaFrance said her team would start to abate two large campsites in the coming weeks.

One at Davis Park in Mountain View and the other in a nearby snow dump site.

LaFrance said 23 homeless camps have been cleared since January.

The Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness estimates that of the more than 3000 people experience homelessness in Anchorage, a little more than 500 are currently without shelter, and the Francis administration is taking a few approaches to bringing that number down.

Alongside abatements.

Farina Brown, a special assistant to the mayor who focuses on homelessness issues, says city officials are working to connect residents from the cleared camps to resources.

The city also has year round shelter now for the first time since 2023.

You can find the full version of these and many more stories on our website.

Alaska public.org or download the Alaska Public Media app on your phone.

Now onto our discussion for this evening.

Immigrants in Alaska.

More than 700 Ukrainians have settled in Alaska since Russia invaded their country three years ago.

More than 100 of them are in Delta Junction, but it's unclear if they have a future in the community.

Several programs supporting their stay in the U.S. have been suspended.

Ukrainians in Delta Junction are leaning on their faith to get through the uncertain times.

Alaska desk.

Alena Naiden spent a day with one Ukrainian family who is making this place home.

The family has adjusted to life in rural Alaska quickly.

Natalia Lexi moved to Delta Junction with their seven children from Ukraine three years ago.

They chose this place to join relatives.

[Speaking Russian] Roughly 120 Ukrainians have settled in the Delta Junction area in recent years.

A significant number for a place with about a thousand residents, many of them, including the botanical family, use the United for Ukraine program.

It allowed them to come to the US with the help from a local sponsor.

The program stopped accepting new applicants in January following an order from President Trump.

[Speaking Russian] Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, Delta Junction already had strong Slavic roots.

People from former Soviet Union countries have been settling here since the early 90s.

Ukrainians specifically make up a much larger share of the Delta Junction area than the rest of the state.

The Slavic influence is reflected in local stores and in places of worship.

[Speaking Russian] Dennis Hartman, a local contractor and an immigrant himself, has found employees through the church community.

I think everybody who comes here, they looking forward for that better life, you know, and this is what America provides.

He like, you know, hey, you want to work, you will get it.

So that's where we are here.

We want to, you know, to raise up America and have a better life.

The Delta Greeley School District has opened its doors to about 30 Ukrainian students who immigrated since the war started.

The district has been expanding support for them, offering English as a second language, classes, translation services and after hours tutoring.

Longtime English teacher Amanda Turnbull has been working with Ukrainian students and witnessing their rapid growth.

I feel absolutely blessed, absolutely honored to be these kids, teacher Turnbull says.

If the families of her Ukrainian students don't have a legal pathway to stay in the country, her whole ESL class of ten would be empty.

She says the loss would create a hole in the community and could endanger some of her students.

Yeah, it hurts my heart so much to think of, these high school boys who would.

Who could at the drop of a hat, get deported and and are back in Ukraine.

They can't leave again.

These ninth graders can't leave again.

What's going to happen to them?

They're going to get conscripted.

Natalia Wooten doesn't want to go back to Ukraine or see her children go to war.

She'd like to keep putting down roots in her new community [Speaking Russian] The family recently bought a piece of land to build their future home in Delta.

Two stories just like the one they left in Ukraine in Delta Junction.

With reporting help from Shelby Herbert.

I am Alena Naiden.

Joining me tonight to describe the current situation for refugees and immigrants in Alaska is suspect.

Rossano Issa is the refugee program coordinator for Catholic Social Services.

And Cindy Woods is a senior immigration and policy fellow for the ACLU of Alaska.

Welcome.

Thank you both for being here.

Thanks for having us.

Is that the U.S.

Refugee Admissions Program was shut down on January 20th.

Describe how people come here under that program and how the closure of it is affecting them now.

Yeah.

Traditionally, the refugee program's over 40 years old.

It was established in the 1980 Refugee Act, which I like to say passed unanimously in the US Senate.

So I think we're in different times now.

But I just want to always say it wasn't always like this.

The refugee program has had long bipartisan support for the many outcomes it brings us as a nation.

It's important to our national security, it's important to our global outreach, and it's important to who we are as Americans in this belief that we're a nation of immigrants and serving those in humanitarian crisis is something we've been called to do for a long time in this country.

And so the U.S.

Refugee Admissions Program effectively was the process in which people could arrive to the United States through the refugee program.

And so it was a partnership with the State Department and other local nonprofits in our communities who would bring people here.

And Alaska's been doing that for over 20 years.

And so, the administration effectively closed it on January 25th with an executive order and has since then cut all the national contracts and terminated them as a result of many of the changes made in the State Department.

So, today, even if somebody was ready to travel and cleared to travel as a refugee, there wouldn't be a new legal process really, for them to arrive.

They wouldn't I wouldn't say legal process.

There's no system in which they could arrive through because that system's really been put on paused or contracts terminated that it largely operated under.

There's been a lot of legal challenges.

Is there a legal challenge to that executive order at this time?

There certainly is.

Have been legal challenges, especially around the individuals who were the 12,000 people who already had booked flights, who were already ready to depart.

And so there have been a number of legal challenges, and he's probably the best to speak through what that might look like.

But, yeah, there's been a number of legal challenges and, and challenges to this idea of just being able to shut the program down.

And so that's been going through litigation really since that occurred.

Cindy, is that refugee program.

Is that the way that most people have come to Alaska from other places?

So that's one option for people who are coming to the United States.

And as as I mentioned, the refugee program is a program that screens and vets individuals who have fled their home countries for refugee status.

And once that status is established, then they're resettled in countries including the United States.

But there is a lot of other ways that people can come to the United States.

There's a number of parole programs that were instituted over the course of the last administration that were specifically geared towards people of certain nationalities, like folks from Ukraine, Afghanistan, and then Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela.

Folks can come in with tourist visas, work visas.

They can be petitioned by their relatives who live here in the United States.

And then also individuals can come to the border and seek to avail themselves of international asylum law and request asylum here in the United States.

So those would also be folks who have fled their home countries as well, out of fear of persecution or torture.

But instead of being vetted outside of the country through the refugee program, they're availing themselves of the U.S. territory and asking the United States to adjudicate a potential asylum claim for them.

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case this week about birthright citizenship.

President Trump wants to end it.

For some people, but the current case centers on the Trump administration's challenge to the ability of lower courts to issue nationwide universal injunctions.

Cindy, what should Alaskans know about this and the current lower court challenges to the 14th amendment and birthright citizenship?

Yeah.

So, you know, it's it's big news that this has gone up to the Supreme Court.

I mean, it's very concerning.

There have been three cases, I believe, that have challenged the executive order that would change birthright citizenship.

And the lower courts in all of those cases have found it to be unconstitutional.

And so what the Supreme Court is actually reviewing is whether or not those lower courts have the ability to issue what's called a nationwide injunction, which would force the government to stop its new birthright citizenship policy nationwide.

Instead, you know, folks are saying that maybe there should be a class action.

So only individuals who are part of a class.

There is a lot of the use of nationwide injunctions in previous administrations as well.

The argument here is that, you know, if in ten states there is birthright citizenship and the other 40 there aren't, it's going to create mass confusion here.

And I think specifically one of Supreme Court justices said today, you know, you lost in every lower court.

Why are you here?

But basically, you know, in terms of the actual idea of eliminating birthright citizenship, that is something that has been inscribed in our Constitution and in the 14th amendment and has been challenged at previous times in the past and always been upheld.

It's it's seemingly very clearly stated and in the letter of the Constitution that folks who are born in the United States are U.S. citizens.

So it'll be interesting to see what comes up.

And it's not surprising that the arguments before the Supreme Court now are more procedural and not specifically challenging the legality of the policy, because I think it's pretty clearly unconstitutional.

I can't imagine how much anxiety people who have who are recently in the state or maybe have been here for quite some time, and all this confusion over what current status is, what are you hearing from the the folks that you work with about, even people that are here legally and have, you know, solid paperwork to support that.

What is the level of fear and anxiety for everyone right now?

Yeah, I mean, I think you can see it in the, you know, clip that played in Delta Junction.

I mean, people are kind of living day by day to try to figure out, like, what kind of grounds do I have to stay to go?

People are trying to figure out how to keep their kids safe.

I mean, people, come to the United States for if you're refugees, for safety and for others, for opportunity.

And really, most of that opportunity is driven by like, you know, like keeping your children safe or keeping your family safe.

And so you start to look around and I think people are saying, am I safe here?

And that's, that's that's the that's what I'm hearing.

Am I safe here?

Am I still safe here?

Is this really the best place to keep my family and in this circumstance?

And so that fear is becoming very real for people.

And, even people who have status, you know, I, I know how important it is to the people I resettle to become U.S. citizens.

It's something they really, really like think about on day one when they get here.

In five years, I can become a U.S. citizen for refugees.

And, you know, I had a client come in who's a refugee.

She became a U.S. citizen three years ago, and she just came to see me to ask if she was going to get her citizenship revoked.

There's that fear of even when you feel like you have status and some permanency, that it doesn't feel that way right now.

And she had gotten a letter from USCIS asking something about her case, and it just spiked this fear immediately.

Am I getting, you know, deported?

And she's been a U.S. citizen for three years.

And so that fear is very much on the surface for everyone right now, I think.

Cindy, what are you hearing?

A lot of the same.

A lot of uncertainty for folks who have status is here that in the past who have been very secure, even legal permanent residents, people who are on the path to citizenship, there's just so much happening in terms of new policies, new executive orders that don't, you know, carry the weight of law at the moment they're issued, but are very concerning.

There's a lot happening in terms of litigation.

And, and so it's really hard, you know, even for an immigration attorney to stay on top of the current state of the law because it's changing every day.

And so what we're seeing is a lot of folks who need to have those consultations with immigration attorneys and understand what are the risks, what are the possibilities, but also the message that we should be sharing is that non-citizens have constitutional rights.

They have rights here in this country.

And it's important for them to understand that and to assert that, and so educating the population on that has been really critical as well.

And just also, you know, not having not panicking, not having fear.

And you know, waiting to see what these policies actually shake out to be, because as we've seen with the revocation of the, student visas for students, you know, the administration walked that back after a series of cases were filed against them in that.

And so it's an ever changing landscape.

What's what's happening?

Before the last presidential election, there was a bipartisan effort in Congress to address immigration and border security.

Sometimes it's known as the Lankford bill, after Republican Senator James Lankford, who brought it forward.

Then candidate Trump didn't want it passed, and it ultimately failed.

Do we've seen a flurry of executive orders?

But have either of you seen any attempts at legislation from lawmakers or some sort of a response to what's happening currently?

Any new legislative efforts coming forward?

I mean, I think there's been some legislative efforts, but nothing comprehensive.

I think, recently Senator Murkowski, co-sponsored a bill that would have given, Ukrainians some additional protections.

It's not totally an answer to a pathway to stay, but it would have been some additional cover in case their status is revoked.

You know, but are those things gaining traction or are they, like, moving forward?

We haven't really seen that.

I mean, there's been a bill introduced every year in Congress since the first Trump administration called the Grace act that would set a minimum standard for the refugee program that has to be filed, but it hasn't gotten the traction to get, you know, move forward.

So I think, we haven't seen comprehensive I think we've seen some fixes.

Same with Afghans.

There was a bill that it was introduced when all the Afghans came that would give them an adjustment of status to stay here as lawful permanent residents.

It never passed.

And so I think that even if things are being introduced, we're not seeing them move forward.

And so those the consequences of lacking strong, you know, intervention coming from the legislative branch is really resulting in what is a very chaotic system of answers, instead of really comprehensive fixes to some of the problems that we know persist because there's not good updated legislation.

Cindy, is there anything that you're tracking or trying to to promote as far as legislative initiatives that you'd like to see come forward?

Yeah.

So one thing that that we're following is the current appropriations process and the reconciliation that's happening right now in terms of setting the budget and just the massive amount of money that the administration is askin order to carry out its, mass deportation plans.

We're talking about tripling the amount of detention space, the, the funds for hiring deportation officers.

And so that's one thing we're tracking.

You know, a lot of the executive orders and things that this administration want to carry out are not possible unless they have the funding to do that.

Unfortunately, we're on the defensive on a lot of things.

I think another thing where we're tracking is the Save act, that is attempting to change the requirements needed in order to, to vote, kind of relying on this, rhetoric, again, that there are noncitizens who are, voting and we need to protect that, when in reality it would just make, for a lot of Alaskans specifically who live rurally, who are native Alaskans, it would make it much more difficult for them to vote as well.

And so we're actually having a town hall on that.

The ACLU and the League of Women Voters next week.

But that's another one that that we're really tracking as well.

So unfortunately, there's not many positive pieces of legislation being introduced at this time.

But the same way that we are, we're tracking policies and seeking to litigate.

We're also tracking, legislation and making sure that the public is informed and can can participate, because that's that's really what part of the American process is, you know, speaking with our representatives and letting them know how these bills will impact us.

And us being all Alaskans, not just us foreign, but the incredible number of foreign born Alaskans that contribute to our economy and our culture.

Earlier this week, PBS NewsHour reported that Afghan people are losing, TPS temporary protected status.

That's happening in July.

What's known about why this is happening and our how many people in Alaska will be could be affected by this.

There's not too many Afghans here in Alaska who only have TPS.

So most of the Afghans that were resettled here to Alaska came under the humanitarian parole program on that operation.

Allies welcome.

There were a number of Afghans who have then followed that initial wave of individuals who came, who have maybe come into the country in a different fashion or were here, maybe they were in universities or studying and have now used TPS as an ability to stay.

And so, you know, I don't think the numbers are huge here in Alaska, but certainly what is concerning is the argument made by the Department of Homeland Security of why people don't need TPS is that it's not unsafe in Afghanistan any longer, and that they are welcome to return home and that, you know, and so that argument certainly has like an element of it that we are concerned about.

When you think about all the other people who are Afghans right now, who we're supporting, who are in fact, you know, applying for asylum, and we're going to make those claims that it's unsafe for them to return home.

So that message that's in there while it may not factor in in Alaska and right now, that message, there is something that is definitely concerning when we think about the other Afghans here who are still working to adjust their statuses to a, to an ability to stay long term.

Cindy, the president has said he'd like to, suspend habeas corpus for some folks that are trying to come into the country, remind people what that is and what that could potentially mean if it were to go forward.

Right.

So habeas corpus is another, right that is inscribed in our constitution, in our founding documents.

And it's really fundamental to who we are as Americans.

It literally means we have the body.

It is a right that allows an individual who has been detained to challenge their detention, to review the evidence that's being used against them, to, support their detention and to challenge that before a judge.

It's really an important and very critical piece of, of our legal framework to protect against and overpowered administrative, executive branch.

And it's only been suspended in three other occasions in our history.

It's a very limited it's very, very sacred.

I would say, I can't stress that enough.

Habeas has only been utilized during the Civil War, briefly in Hawaii during World War Two, and then in 1905, in the Philippines, when it was, considered part of the United States.

And only Congress can choose to suspend habeas corpus.

And it's really only in those critical times of insurrection or war.

And so this idea that the current quote unquote, invasion that's happening would be legally sufficient to suspend habeas is just completely off the radar.

And in our final 30s here, what do you want, folks who are concerned, to do what what should they do?

And there's nothing more American than speaking out and participating in your democracy.

So, no matter how Alaskans feel about this, they should let their elected representatives know.

And they should, also let their neighbors know.

So if you have a neighbor, here in your community who is a refugee who's an immigrant, and you're happy they're here, they they wouldn't mind hearing that at this point, I think.

Thank you.

Cindy.

Anything to add?

Yeah.

And just knowing your rights and your responsibilities, what you can do to help your neighbors, what your neighbors can do to assert their rights themselves and, and just, you know, utilizing all of the beautiful pieces of our American democracy that help to protect people.

All right.

Thank you both so much for being here.

This evening.

Most of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants.

Only people indigenous to North America can claim original status.

In past generations, immigrants were welcomed here to take on the intense work of building American infrastructure.

And although Trump administration mandates have brought many immigrant programs to a halt, it doesn't change the needs our country and state still have for workers and students from foreign countries to help us solve problems, build the economy of tomorrow, and thrive into the future.

That's it for this edition of Alaska Insight, visit our website.

Alaska public.org for breaking news and reports from our partner stations across the state.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Good night.