Local advocacy group ready to help Ukrainian refugees coming to U.S.

Local advocacy group readies to help Ukrainian refugees coming to U.S.

Among the first Ukrainians refugee coming to the U.S. will be those who have family already in the United States, Biden said. Executive Director of the Nationalities Service Center Margaret O’Sullivan told FOX 29 that Pennsylvania has the second largest number of Ukrainians in the United States.

PHILADELPHIA - The United States is expanding efforts to help Ukrainian refugees. It has agreed to accept up to 100,000 people escaping from the war and to increase support for Eastern European nations that have taken in most of the people fleeing Russian forces.

While in Brussels to meet with European allies, President Joe Biden said the United States would admit up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and provide $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to countries affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The financial support is important because most of the approximately 3.6 million refugees who have fled Ukraine are in neighboring countries such as Poland, Moldova, and Romania and are posing a substantial burden.

"This is not something that Poland or Romania or Germany should carry on their own," said Biden, who said he hopes to meet with refugees on his European trip. "This is an international responsibility."

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A Delaware County bartender is hosting "Cocktails with a Cause" to help raise money for Ukraine refugees who continue to flee their homeland in record numbers. Sam Whitaker connected with a Ukrainian web designer and her young daughter days before Russia launched its full scale invasion.

Among the first Ukrainians refugee coming to the U.S. will be those who have family already in the United States, Biden said at a news conference.

The administration did not provide a timeline, but it’s typically a lengthy process and the officials said all 100,000 may not necessarily arrive this year. Most of the refugees probably will settle in parts of the U.S. that already have large concentrations of Ukrainians.

Executive Director of the Nationalities Service Center Margaret O’Sullivan told FOX 29 that Pennsylvania has the second largest number of Ukrainians in the United States.

"There's already a wide network here, they're already community organizations that are helping in real time," O'Sullivan said.

The Nationalities Service Center recently celebrated its 100th year in operation, and in the wake of the refugee crisis in Afghanistan it was one of its busiest years to date. For the past few months they've helped hundreds of Afghan refugees settle into the US by teaching them English and helping get jobs and housing.

A woman with two children and carrying bags walk on a street to leave Ukraine after crossing the Slovak-Ukrainian border in Ubla, eastern Slovakia, close to the Ukrainian city of Welykyj Beresnyj, on February 25, 2022, following Russia's invasion of

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Advocates welcomed Thursday’s announcement, as did members of Congress with large Ukrainian populations in their districts, such as New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell.

"Until today, the rate of Ukraine refugee acceptance by our nation has lacked urgency," he said. "But this morning’s announcement by the Biden administration to accept 100,000 refugees from Ukraine has the urgency that is essential for this dark moment."

There seems to be public support as well.

The vast majority of Americans -- 82% -- say they favor providing humanitarian support to refugees from Ukraine, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A smaller but still wide majority, 67%, say they favor accepting refugees from Ukraine into the U.S. Just 13% are opposed while another 21% say they hold neither opinion.