The Spokesman-Review | February 22, 2026
This October, 3,000 immigrants in Washington will lose their access to long-term care, and 30,000 will lose their health insurance as a result of Donald Trump’s HR 1. Washington state can fill in the gap and help us avoid catastrophe.
I came to Washington state in 2023 from Ukraine, where I worked as the director of a garment factory. Before the war, my family’s life was like a fairy tale. Our city, Mariupol, was beautiful and growing. We celebrated holidays and took vacations.
We never imagined that one day our city would cease to exist and our entire life would be erased – as if it, too, had never existed.
In February 2022, the war started. Mariupol was heavily bombed. For three weeks, my family of seven lived in a basement bomb shelter. All we knew of life above was the incessant bombing. We were already saying goodbye to life, thinking we would be buried there forever.
We were able to emigrate to the United States with the help of our friends who had moved to Spokane years ago. Through the United for Ukraine program, I came to the U.S. along with my son, my daughter-in-law, my grandchild, and my elderly parents. We got legal status, and we were issued work permits without delay.
I was anxious about assimilating to a new culture. I’d visited the U.S. just once before as a tourist in Miami. But when we started rebuilding our lives in Spokane, the welcoming atmosphere and the smiling, friendly, helpful Americans calmed our anxiety.
My dad is deaf and has prostate cancer and dementia. When he got health insurance in the U.S., I started taking him to doctors who told me he needed a caregiver. Through his Medicaid coverage, I was able to get a full-time job taking care of him and of my mother, who has heart failure and several other conditions.
As their caregiver, I take them to doctors’ appointments, buy groceries, bathe them, change their diapers, prepare their food, dress them, get them out of bed, massage them and trim their nails. They rely on me to stay alive.
It wasn’t easy to transition from managing 300 people at a factory to being a caregiver. The work is mentally and physically exhausting. But the opportunity to repay the love my parents gave me helps me cope with the challenges of the job.
Last year, things started to change for Ukrainians in the U.S. Suddenly people weren’t getting their documents renewed, weren’t getting work permits, had no idea of the status of their cases. They were left hanging, uncertain of their next move.
Then we learned that the Medicaid we depend on for our health care, and my job as a caregiver, will be taken away from us simply because we are immigrants. HR 1 completely cuts off people like us: refugees, asylees, TPS holders, humanitarian parolees.
All I want is for my parents, who worked so hard all their lives, to live their final days in peace. This policy targets the people who need help the most – those of us who came here to escape war, who have endured the greatest fears of our lives. People who are trying to peacefully build our lives in America.
A growing movement of immigrants and our allies are calling on Washington state lawmakers to step up and help our families avoid crisis. When the state Legislature releases its budget this month, we’re asking that they include funding for the 3,000 seniors and people with disabilities in Washington who are about to be cut off from their caregivers, and the 30,000 immigrants who are about to lose healthcare.
We’re so thankful to this country, and for the Americans who have helped us make it our home. Now, we ask Gov. Ferguson and our state lawmakers to take action so we can continue living.