In late February, ICE began detaining asylum seekers in Pittsburgh’s Russian and Ukrainian immigrant communities. Pittsburgh City Paper spoke to multiple sources with first- and secondhand knowledge of the detentions and, via interviews and online research, has confirmed the details of at least one that resulted in the separation of family members. Fearing reprisal from U.S. and foreign authorities during sensitive legal proceedings, few would speak with City Paper on record.
“People are afraid of the unknown and uncertainty with Trump’s policy and ICE officers,” says Russian émigré Amir Mingazetdinov, who communicated with CP using Google Translate. “Immigration is already a lot of stress … and then there is the added uncertainty of visiting [ICE] as well as waiting for the courts that something might change.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s push for mass deportations has resulted in ICE raids nationally and in Pittsburgh, impacting businesses, schools, and families alike. However, the public face of ICE’s targets — some of whom seem to have been erroneously singled out because of their tattoos — has frequently been Black or brown. Much of Trump’s rhetoric surrounding immigration has centered on Central American drug cartels or Haitian refugees.
But it seems no one is safe from Trump’s deportation dragnet. Mingazetdinov says he’s aware of at least 10 such cases among Russians and Ukrainians in Greater Pittsburgh, although he says some who have been detained were released on bail or have secured an immigration lawyer.
Many Russians come to the U.S. to avoid military service for ideological or political reasons, including support for dissident Alexei Navalny, or simply to avoid death — a recent BBC estimate found evidence of at least 95,000 battlefield fatalities on the Russian side alone. Ukrainians who likewise fled or were displaced by the violence now find themselves on Trump’s bad side following his administration’s White House ambush of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the nearly quarter-million Ukrainians in America could yet find their legal status in jeopardy.
The ICE detentions have rattled many who previously felt safe, and Mingazetdinov says many asylum seekers face very real threats of violence should they return to their countries of origin. He provided CP with screenshots of WhatsApp messages from Russia accusing him of selling out and making veiled threats.
“If I am deported, I will be put in prison where they will torture me,” he says.
For Mingazetdinov, the journey to Greater Pittsburgh, where he has family, was worth it. “I still believe that the USA is a country of democracy and the word of the law,” he says. And he says others in Pittsburgh’s immigrant community work extremely hard to preserve their legal pathway to permanent residence or citizenship — which can take years, if not decades.
In spite of the high barrier to entry (one libertarian policy analysis called legal immigration “nearly impossible”), statistics show foreign-born residents boost the economy and open businesses at a higher rate. Immigrant and refugee communities have also been a major boon to Rust Belt cities — Pittsburgh’s population has seen modest growth for the first time in decades in large part thanks to the arrival of over 10,000 immigrants in recent years.
“If they have to go back, then that’s kind of our loss because a lot of them are very well educated, and they work very hard,” says LuAnn Pengidore, who teaches English classes serving local immigrants. “They’re so industrious.”
Pengidore says the reports of ICE activity in Greater Pittsburgh, and the rumors they inspire, have made many of her students “nervous, but they’re plodding on.” She says the Russian and Ukrainian students continue coming to English lessons and may feel less profiled than her Hispanic students, some of whom have been staying away from work and school out of fear. “They’re not coming to class, and that’s going to affect them, their ability to keep moving on [in society],” Pengidore says. “They really don’t know what their future is.”
Pengidore says local nonprofits like the Christian Immigration Advocacy Center have stepped up, and the county recently interceded on behalf of other local organizations affected by cuts to federal aid. Meanwhile, green card holders, workers and students with legal visas, Russians with a history of protest, and others continue to be harassed, detained, interrogated, and sent home for clerical errors, oversights in travel planning, or tattoos. Foreign governments including Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany have issued travel advisories for their citizens heading to the U.S. Sources for this story describe a climate of fear and uncertainty.
“We are trying our best to legalize ourselves, we follow all the rules, we check in with the ICE,” Mingazetdinov says. “If it is an obvious crime, then yes, I am for deportation or prison, but if there is a minor mistake in the documents, or an illegal form when crossing the border, which a person made out of ignorance, or mistakes by the judicial system or ICE officers, then this should not be punishable by deportation or prison.”
But, he says, “now with Trump’s policy I could end up behind bars because not all my documents were in order.”
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2025.
