AOC slams ‘stark contrast’ between treatment of Ukraine refugees versus asylum seekers from Haiti and Syria

‘We really need to make sure when we talk about accepting refugees we are meaning it for everybody’

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the US should treat all refugees in the same manner with which it currently treats Ukrainian refugees, pointing to the “stark contrast” in how governments have dealt with Syrian and Haitian refugees.

The congresswoman’s remarks on Tuesday come in the backdrop of an impending humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, which has been battling an invasion by Russia on 24 February.

The congresswoman said the US should ensure all refugees are equally accepted, regardless of where they come from.

“I think the world is watching and many immigrants and refugees are watching, and how the world treats Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees should be how we are treating all refugees in the United States,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez told MSNBC.

While most Ukrainian citizens fleeing their country are seeking refuge in Europe, the US on Sunday pledged $54m (£41m) in humanitarian assistance.

This would be channeled through nonprofits to provide food, safe drinking water, shelter and emergency healthcare, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said in a statement.

The congresswoman said there was a “stark contrast” in the way the world treated Syrian refugees versus the way Ukrainian refugees are being treated, despite both countries having gone through similar catastrophes.

“I think the way we are looking at immediate granting of TPS [Temporary Protected Status] to Ukrainian refugees, which is what we need to be doing, as well as many others, is something that we need to keep in mind,” the Democrat leader said.

TPS is a humanitarian deportation relief programme that grants work permit access to foreign nationals whose native countries have been battered by war or natural disasters.

“We really need to make sure that when we talk about accepting refugees that we are meaning it for everybody, no matter where you come from,” she said, citing the example of the unjust treatment towards Haitian refugees by the US government, including the past and the current Biden administration.

The congresswoman pointed to the thousands of people who were denied legal refuge on the US-Mexico border.

“If we grant TPS to Ukrainian refugees, it is also an opportunity to create a path to citizenship for TPS recipients... While there is a risk, there is also a profound opportunity for us to make the crooked path straight on this issue,” she added, explaining that TPS recipients did not have a “concrete path” to US citizenship.

On Monday, 42 senators across the party lines had asked president Joe Biden to temporarily shield those Ukrainians living in the US from deportation.

The group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers said the Biden administration should offer access to TPS as the ongoing war has made it “too dangerous” for deportees to return.

The congresswoman’s remarks assume significance as several commentators call out the discriminatory manner with which international media outlets have covered the invasion and the contrast in policies that Ukraine’s neighbours have adopted in granting shelter to them compared to those who seek asylum from outside Europe.