UPDATE: White House denies 'fake news' that Trump may revoke temporary protected status for over 240,000 Ukrainian refugees

The Biden administration granted temporary protected status to some 240,000 Ukrainians who were seeking refuge from the war in their nation that began in February 2022. The Trump administration is planning to revoke that status as soon as April, which would accelerate their deportation process, per Reuters. The White House later denied that report.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that "This is more fake news from Reuters based on anonymous sources who have no idea what they are talking about. The truth: no decision has been made at this time."

Reuters reached out to Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who had nothing to report on the matter, though later it was reported that the White House would not be making this move. Tensions have been rising between the US and Ukraine. Former President Joe Biden, who worked to fund the nation with weapons and aid to help them continue to prolong their fight against their aggressor neighbor Russia, opened the door to Ukrainian refugees.

There are over 6.8 million refugee Ukrainians globally, in Poland, Germany, the UK and the US, as well as other nations. The war has left many homes and apartment buildings destroyed. The percentage of Ukrainians who are intending to return back to the country has dropped substantially, to less than 50 percent, as the war has dragged on and people have created new lives, per Voice of America. It is also likely that once the border of Ukraine is opened back up, others who have remained in the country will leave.

President Donald Trump, however, has been tightening the screws on Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to encourage him to engage in a peace process. The two men met in the White House on Friday to begin the discussions for a peace plan, the first step of which, per Trump, was for Zelensky to agree to a rare earth mineral deal that would give the US revenue from the development of that resource in Urkraine.

Zelensky, who was widely believed, before the meeting, to be ready to sign the deal, declined in the absence of further security guarantees from the US, which he demanded. Trump ended the meeting abruptly and had the leader removed from the White House along with his entire delegation. 

Since then, the US has suspended funding and weapons shipments for Ukraine and has suspended the sharing of intelligence information that was being used to help Ukraine's military forces in targeting Russian installations with US-made missiles.

The Trump administration has also been continuing their plans of mass deportations across the US. Recently, DHS Secretaty Kristi Noem removed the temporary protected status for over 100,000 Haitians who are in the US on that program. This is in line with Trump's executive order, issued on the day he took office, to "terminate all categorial programs" such as this within the DHS. 

DHS is also expected to cancel the temporary protected status for Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans, all of whom were given preferential treatment under the Biden administration. Much of what the Biden administration did to curb illegal immigration was to create more legal statuses for migrants and immigrants. Refugees, asylum seekers, those who already had some family in the US, and unaccompanied minors, were all given pathways to a legal status.