Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joined Democrats on Thursday to support a measure that would grant Ukrainians in the U.S. temporary guest status, allowing them to stay in the country until hostilities in Ukraine have ended.
The legislation, “Protecting our Guests During Hostilities in Ukraine Act,” would apply to Ukrainians and their immediate family members who are already in the country and would let them stay and work until the Secretary of State determines it is safe to go back, and hostilities have ceased.
Murkowski said she is cosponsoring the legislation after meeting with Ukrainians in her state who “fled Russia’s unprovoked war who have found safety and community in Alaska.”
“These families—and the Alaskans and Alaskan businesses who have supported and employed them—have expressed their strong desire to remain and work here,” Murkowski said. “Granting temporary guest status for Ukrainians already in the United States achieves this goal.”
“As the war enters its fourth year, we must continue to provide the Ukrainians who have taken refuge in the U.S. a safe haven to weather the storm,” she added.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced the legislation on Monday, which marked the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Three years ago today, Putin began his brutal, criminal, full-scale invasion of Ukraine—which remains on the frontlines of democracy and transatlantic security,” Durbin said, in unveiling the legislation.
He lamented, at the time, that “not a single Republican has cosponsored this bill,” adding, “I urge them to join us to ensure Ukrainians legally present in the U.S. have temporary guest status until conditions in Ukraine are safe for return. Standing up to dictators and speaking out for victims of war should not be a partisan issue.”
Murkowski, a moderate Republican, has at times bucked her party leader and has been a firm advocate for supporting Ukraine.
During a telephone town hall last week, a constituent reportedly asked Murkowski about Trump’s labeling of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator without elections” and his suggestion that Ukraine started the war with Russia.
“It is wrong to suggest that somehow or other Ukraine started this war, asked for this war,” she said, according to Alaska Public Media. “It is clear for all the world to see and to know that Putin invaded Ukraine and started the war.”
