ICE agents have arrested a Ukrainian refugee, Viktoriia Bulavina, who had fled the war zone in 2022. She went to the green card interview at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services Center with her husband, Viktor Korol.
After her arrest, Viktor was distraught, and he had to return without her. He is now pleading for his wife to be released from the Otay Mesa Immigration Detention Center in California.
Bulavina had come to the US as a part of humanitarian parole in a way to escape the Ukraine and Russia war zone. Viktor explains she fled an active war zone where bombs were dropping. He said, “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.”
In his NBC interview, Viktor said his wife helped him when he was going through chemo, battling cancer. She was always there for him in the hospital. Bulavina got the Temporary Protected Status(TPS) in October 2023.
Ukrainian woman fleeing war arrested at green card interview in front of her U.S. citizen husband https://t.co/LNJOoyKAAe
— The San Diego Union-Tribune (@sdut) December 9, 2025
She came to the US when the war had just started. He added that his wife told him she did not sleep at all for 3 days in the detention center, calling it “harsh and inhumane attitude.” She went to the Center to get her TPS renewed, for which she had applied in January before it expired. However, she got an interview date for December 4. Viktor and the attorney explained the situation to the ICE agents.
Bulavina is still in the detention center dealing with inhumane conditions, while Viktor is trying to get her out at the earliest. He is trying to get a court hearing to sort the case out sooner. He was able to meet her over the weekend and said, “This is a complete and utter injustice that is happening to my wife, which is frustrating. It cannot happen in the United States.”
ICE is arresting husbands & wives at their final green card interviews
They’re going to the immigration meeting and leaving in handcuffs
One man had to take his crying infant from his wife’s arms as ICE forcibly detained her
This is cruel entrapment pic.twitter.com/fsKmrzdVAT
— Kelly (@broadwaybabyto) November 27, 2025
People have been reacting to the news, supporting the couple. One YouTube user commented, “If you’re arresting people at immigration hearings, you don’t actually care about immigrants, “doing things the right way”.
They were also sympathizing with Viktoriia, who had fled the war zone, “It’s very sad for anyone from countries that are being blown up and wiped out to go back to destruction.” The third one posted, “Catch 22, if you don’t go to the hearing, they come after you about it. If you do go, you save them legwork.” This is the reason people have been scared of showing up for immigration appointments and green card interviews.
