A San Diego man is pleading for help to get his wife released from the Otay Mesa Detention Center after ICE officials detained her following the completion of her green card interview.
Last Thursday, Viktoriia Bulavina, a Ukrainian refugee, and her husband, Viktor Korol, came to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for what was supposed to be Bulavina’s green card appointment.
But Korol left without her because she was detained by immigration officials. Now, he’s trying to figure out a way to get her released and back home.
Bulavina arrived in the U.S. in 2022 as a refugee, with a humanitarian parole, fleeing from the war in Ukraine.
“Airplanes were dropping bombs, and missiles, and she’s there, they said, for a week in a basement, and then they fled to the other part of Ukraine,” Korol said.
She has been by her husband’s side while he was battling cancer.
“She was there for me when I was in the hospital and then the chemo,” Korol said.
In October 2023, Bulavina filed for and was granted Temporary Protective Status. In January, three months before her TPS status was set to expire, she applied for a renewal, Korol said.
According to her attorney, the online portal said a decision on that extension would have been made within two weeks. In March, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services scheduled Bulavina for a green card interview on December 4.
“Both attorney and me, we were talking to the ICE people, explaining to them her status, you know, that it is a perfect status. That she has TPS, she filed for an extension, and waiting for the extension. I repeated it a couple of times, but they were saying ... her status was expired, so they will detain her,” Korol said.
NBC 7 reached out to USCIS for information regarding Bulavina’s detention, and is awaiting a response.
Right now, Bulavina is being held at the Otay Mesa Immigration Detention Center, Korol said. Her husband says she has spent the last few days with little to no sleep.
“She said [they have a] very harsh and inhumane attitude. Basically, you don’t have anything, you don’t have a phone, you don’t have spare clothes, she basically didn’t sleep for three days,” he said.
On Sunday, he visited her at the Otay Mesa Detention facility. Now, he’s doing everything in his power, working with their immigration attorney, to get Bulavina out as soon as possible.
“This is a complete and utter injustice that is happening to my wife, which is frustrating. It cannot happen in the United States. I’m coming from the USSR, I can understand that I can understand that random stuff and inhumane stuff can happen in those regimes, but this is totally out of whack for where we are and how we feel here,” Korol said.
He also hopes she can get a hearing with a judge to get her case resolved.
In a press release Friday, Bulavina attorney said in part, “This is a woman who did everything right…There is no justification for detaining her and tearing her away from her family.”
