Russians fleeing Putin’s war join migrants seeking asylum in the U.S.

Russians fleeing from the draft and President Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine are joining the hundreds of thousands of migrants claiming asylum in the U.S. by way of Mexico.

Clustered together with migrants from Moldova, Cuba and other Central and South American countries, Russian migrants were seen this week claiming asylum in the U.S. amid a massive surge around the holidays.

One Moldovan migrant said they were told that the ‘border is open,’ according to NewsNation, even though the Biden administration continues to insist to the contrary.

‘People should not listen to the lies of smugglers who take advantage of vulnerable migrants, putting lives at risk,’ the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wrote in a Tuesday evening statement.

‘The border is not open,’ it continued, ‘and we will continue to fully enforce our immigration laws.’

A Russian migrant who fled to avoid being drafted into the war with Ukraine thanked President Biden for giving people the opportunity to claim political asylum in the U.S.

‘It’s 65-70 percent of people think about that the United States of America is problem No. 1 for Russia,’ Igor, 24, told NewsNation when asked if he likes it in the U.S. so far after he crossed from Mexico into Arizona.

Russians were seen among migrants making fires and standing around them near the border as temperatures dipped below freezing before and after Christmas.

The influx, which saw Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encounter 8,000 migrants each day along the southern border last week, comes amid confusion over the impending end of pandemic-era Title 42.

Some predictive models show that once Title 42 ends, the number of crossings at the border each day could reach 17,000.

Igor, 24, is a Russian migrant seeking political asylum in the U.S. to avoid being drafted into the war with Ukraine. He told NewsNation that he is thankful to President Joe Biden for allowing them to seek asylum in the U.S. 

Custom and Border Protection (CBP) encountered 233,740 in November – the second month of Fiscal Year 2023. It is the slight uptick from the month prior and the third-highest month of encounters in recent history, all occurring under President Joe Biden

The public health policy was set to be nixed on December 21 – just four days before Chrismtas – but was delayed due to a Supreme Court order that put a stay on Title 42 ending. The Biden administration requested that the stay be extended to December 27.

On Tuesday, the high court decided to take up a GOP challenge to Title 42 ending, extending the pause on the policy ending until a decision is levied in June.

Then-President Donald Trump invoked Title 42 at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. The policy was meant to prevent illegal immigrants from bringing over COVID-19.

An additional benefit to the policy, however, is that it helped quell the southern border crisis through the midst of the pandemic.

With the Biden administration seeking to end Title 42, Republicans are concerned that there are no other policies or fail safes in place to prevent mass chaos at the border.