ORANGEVALE, Calif. — Since the Russia-Ukraine war began, millions of refugees have fled to Poland and neighboring countries. Immigration advocates are now also seeing a surge of Ukrainian refugees fleeing to Mexico.
"Many Ukrainians don't want to go in Europe anymore because they cannot find a place to stay. It's full right now," said Erik Latkovskyi, a staff member at Spring of Life Church who just returned from a trip to Tijuana, Mexico.
"What we do is we greet people at the airport. We say that we're Ukrainians, we're here to help you, we want just safety to transfer you from the airport to the border and give them food and pray with them," said Latkovskyi.
Under the current Title 42 immigration policies in the U.S., asylum seekers can be turned away because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Biden administration is planning to put an end to that policy in late May. Currently, some refugees are being allowed to enter the United States under humanitarian parole.
"I saw a lot of women with children and they were really scared. They want to cross legally, cross the border to United States and ask for help," said Latkovskyi. "When I went there, it was 100 people per day. Right now, it's 400 people per day. I just talked with the people who work there so I think at the end of the week, it will be more than 1,000 people in a line to cross the border."
With Latkovskyi's help, ten Ukrainian refugees were safely brought back to the Sacramento area and placed with host families. Spring of Life Church has assisted 40 refugees since the war began and plan to continue expanding their efforts.
"To understand what they need, you need to be there and this is why we go there to see where is the problem and how we can fix it," said Latkovskyi.
Spring of Life Church has started a GoFundMe page to aid in the crisis in Ukraine. The church is also looking for more volunteers to host refugees. Those who are interested can fill out an application on their website.
