An Ukrainian woman who fled the war in 2024 to seek refuge in the United States has recently chosen to return to her home country, in order to avoid potential arrest by the ICE, the American immigration police.
Escaping the American immigration police at all costs. Karina Krainov, a Ukrainian refugee who arrived in the United States after fleeing the Russian invasion in 2024, has returned to her home country due to the tightening of immigration controls.
The 39-year-old woman had arrived legally in the United States under a welcoming program established by the administration of former Democratic President Joe Biden.
However, the return of Donald Trump and his particularly restrictive immigration policy, which has cost the lives of several people during checks carried out by ICE, prompted her to make this decision.
“I prefer that than going to detention”
In an interview with The Guardian, Karina Krainov, who had obtained her American driver’s license and had been working as a truck driver since, recounts that she suddenly lost it during a roadside check last fall.
Facing the increase in controls, Karina Krainov explains that she prefers not to take any risk of arrest: “I did not want to be stopped by ICE agents at a gas station or on the road and be placed in detention.”
Return to a country at war
“I would rather go back home to my husband rather than being detained for months and treated like other immigrants in those detention centers,” she assures.
Like Karina Krainov, thousands of immigrant drivers have lost their licenses due to the tightening of regulations on commercial driver’s licenses.
The thirty-year-old, who has resumed her routine in a country at war, describes “trams and buses still out of service for another month.” “There have been many attacks on residential buildings where civilians live,” she adds.
