San Diego man pleads for release of his Ukrainian wife detained by ICE after US green card interview

By Gizem Nisa Demir

ISTANBUL (AA) - A Ukrainian refugee was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after attending what was meant to be a routine green card interview in San Diego, prompting her husband to call the action unjust and plead for help to get his wife released.

Viktoriia Bulavina was taken into custody on Dec. 4 after appearing with her husband, Viktor Korol, at a US Citizenship and Immigration Services office, NBC News reported.

Korol said ICE officers detained Bulavina despite her holding Temporary Protected Status and having applied for an extension earlier this year.

“Both attorney and me, we were talking to the ICE people, explaining to them her status,” Korol was quoted by NBC as saying. “I repeated it a couple of times, but they were saying … her status was expired, so they will detain her.”

Bulavina, who fled Ukraine in 2022 under humanitarian parole, is now held at the Otay Mesa Immigration Detention Center.

Korol said she described a “very harsh and inhumane attitude” in detention. Her attorney said in a statement: “This is a woman who did everything right…There is no justification for detaining her and tearing her away from her family.”ট্রুম্প