As a Ukrainian-American, I am alarmed and disgusted that more has not been done to help the 3+ million Ukrainian refugees — a shocking number of refugees that will increase daily.

Why aren't Ukrainian refugees being allowed to immigrate to America and claim asylum from this horrific war?

Secretary of state Antony Blinken was recently asked if any Ukrainian refugees will be brought to America, and he said only that he will "look" at it.  In Poland, Vice President Kamala Harris was recently asked a similar question, and her nervous answer, with laughter, was to look at the Polish prime minister and say, "A friend in need is a friend indeed."  This is no laughing matter!  This is a disgrace.

Ukrainian refugees have fled with literally only the clothes on their backs.  Many are women and children.  These refugees are in absolute shock and frightened for their future.

Ukrainians are woven into the fabric of America.  In the early 1900s, America was undergoing an "Industrial Revolution" and needed laborers.  Thousands upon thousands of Ukrainians answered America's call and immigrated to America.  They worked in dangerous hard labor jobs such as coal mining, steel mills, factories, and farming.  They helped to build America.  My Ukrainian grandfather was one of them.  He came to America when he was only fifteen years old and worked a lifetime in Pennsylvania coal mines.  Furthermore, thousands of first-generation Ukrainian-Americans sacrificed their lives for America in World War II.

Ukrainians have been ridiculed throughout history as "peasant people."  This prejudice starkly exists today as Ukraine has been repeatedly denied entry into the European Union.

I served in the U.S. Air Force, and I know that our country can bring many Ukrainian refugees to America on military cargo planes.  Last year, some 70,000 people from Afghanistan were evacuated in a matter of days on such aircraft. 

President Joe Biden needs to take immediate action to bring Ukrainian refugees to America.

Image: Mirek Pruchnicki.