The year 2025 brought a significant tightening of enforcement of U.S. immigration law. As a result, hundreds of Ukrainian and Polish citizens were placed under deportation proceedings or left the United States under pressure from new administrative actions. Donald Trump. Although the scale of the phenomenon is not mass-scale for these nationalities, changes in US migration policy have caused concern among diasporas and raised questions about the direction of action in 2026.
Why the US tightened its immigration policy
Tightening immigration policy Trump in 2025 results from administrative decisions aimed at stricter enforcement of existing laws, not on its liberalization. A key role in the implementation of this strategy is played by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Activities include:
– intensification of controls on persons staying in the USA without valid status,
– implementation of outstanding deportation decisions issued in previous years,
– promoting so-called voluntary departures as an alternative to formal deportation.
Scale of deportations in 2025
According to publicly available government announcements and US media analyses, 2025 is one of the years with the highest number of deportations and departures under administrative pressure for many years. This primarily concerns migrants from Latin America and Asia, but the statistics also include citizens of European countries.
In the case of Polish and Ukrainian citizens, we’re talking about hundreds of decisions annually, not mass deportations. These are individual, specific administrative cases involving individuals violating applicable residence regulations. Most often, these cases involve situations where the individual has overstayed their permitted stay, their visa or other residence permit has expired, or they have failed to meet the formal requirements for extending their stay or obtaining humanitarian protection.
Source: DHS
Ukrainians in the USA – a special situation
The situation of Ukrainian citizens in the United States has a distinct, distinctly humanitarian context, resulting from the ongoing war in their country. In recent years, many Ukrainians have benefited from protection mechanisms offered by the US authorities, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and various types of humanitarian programs.
In 2025, however, verification procedures were tightened. Applications for extensions of protection began to be reviewed more rigorously, and some individuals failed to meet the new or modified formal criteria. As a result, individuals who no longer had valid residence status began receiving administrative decisions requiring them to leave the United States.
Poles in the USA – facts and the scale of the phenomenon
In the case of Polish citizens Deportations in the United States are limited in scale, but each such case generates significant interest in Polish communities. They most often involve individuals who remained in the US after their visas expired, worked without the required authorization, or opted for self-deportation after administrative proceedings were initiated against them.
Polish consular offices monitor such cases on an ongoing basis and, within their competences, provide citizens of the Republic of Poland with consular assistance and access to current information published by Foreign Office for Poles staying in the USA.
Immigration law without exceptions for allies
One of the key elements of the American immigration system is no nationality criterion in law enforcement. This means that:
– citizenship of an allied country does not protect against deportation,
– only the legal status of the person is decisive,
– even long-term residence does not guarantee protection without formal status.
This is why both Poles and Ukrainians appear in the statistics.
What might happen in 2026
Announcements from the public administration indicate that the year 2026 may bring further intensification enforcement actions in the area of migration policy. It is expected that the number of internal inspections will increase, deportation decisions will be executed more quickly, and there will be greater pressure on people without valid residence status to voluntarily leave the country.
However, experts emphasize that the direction of policy may be subject to corrections, depending on the international situation and court decisions.
International and social consequences
The tightening of US immigration policy has consequences that extend beyond the country’s borders. Among other things, it affects:
– the situation of migrants returning to Europe,
– consular activities of Poland and Ukraine,
– moods in diasporas and public debate in the USA.
In many American cities, the issue of deportation has become the subject of protests and political disputes.
Important
Deportations of Poles and Ukrainians from the USA in 2025 are a result of stricter enforcement of immigration law, not actions targeting specific nationalities. While the scale of the phenomenon against these groups remains limited, changes in US policy have increased uncertainty among migrants. 2026 promises further challenges, and the situation remains dynamic.
Journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Nowiny Wschodnie, a news platform followed by more than 140,000 people on social media. A graduate in Journalism and Social Communication, he has been co-creating and developing Nowiny Wschodnie since 2017. He gained professional experience working with local and international media.
He specializes in fact-checking, countering disinformation and propaganda, and information security. His work focuses on Poland, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Polish-Ukrainian relations. He is also the founder of a non-profit organization working in the fields of integration and intercultural dialogue.
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