Rep. Jason Crow, the Colorado Democrat and former Army Ranger who sits on the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said in a Sunday post on X that “Putin continues to brutally attack Ukraine” and announced he is leading legislation to extend temporary protections for Ukrainians living in the United States. The post landed one day before the Oct. 19 date on which Ukraine’s Temporary Protected Status designation is scheduled to expire, and days after President Donald Trump announced a diesel deal with Putin and waived sweeping new sanctions on Russia.
In the post, published at 10:02 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026, Crow wrote in full:
“Putin continues to brutally attack Ukraine.
America must stand with the Ukrainian women, children, & refugees already in the U.S. who cannot return home without fearing for their lives.
I’m leading new legislation to extend temporary protections for these Ukrainians:”
A Bill Built Around a Deadline
The legislation Crow referenced was introduced earlier this month. Aurora’s The Sentinel reported on Oct. 7 that the House bill would extend Temporary Protected Status, known as TPS, for Ukrainians through mid-2029 and write the extension into federal law rather than leaving it subject to presidential action. “Russia continues its illegal and unprovoked attacks on Ukraine,” Crow said in a statement at the time. “America must continue to stand with the people of Ukraine.”
Crow introduced the House bill with Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. Senate sponsors include Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Chris Coons, D-Del.; and Bill Cassidy, R-La. A Senate version, S. 5490, would treat Ukraine as newly designated for TPS starting Oct. 20, 2026, and run the designation until July 1, 2029.
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, a Republican and former member of Congress, endorsed the effort while cautioning about its prospects. “It would be heartless to force the Ukrainians back into a war zone,” Coffman said in a statement. He added that, having served 10 years in Congress, he knows how difficult the bill will be to pass, noting that Trump already has the authority to extend the status on his own.
Legal Limbo for About 100,000 Ukrainians
Roughly 100,000 Ukrainians hold TPS under an 18-month extension that began April 20, 2025, and runs through Oct. 19, 2026. As of mid-October, the Department of Homeland Security had not published a Federal Register notice extending, redesignating or terminating the designation. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services alerts issued in August and September continued to list Oct. 19 as the termination date.
Immigration attorneys and advocacy groups argue the missed Aug. 20 deadline, 60 days before expiration, triggered an automatic six-month extension to April 19, 2027, under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The government has not publicly confirmed that reading, and the question leaves employers and TPS holders without a firm answer on work authorization.
Crow’s name appears on an Aug. 4 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin from members of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus urging DHS to extend and redesignate Ukraine for TPS. The letter noted that Russia’s full-scale invasion has entered its fifth year and that Ukraine continues to meet the statutory requirements for the designation.
The push comes amid a broader shift in U.S. policy. Homeland Security has ended TPS for more than 1 million people from 14 countries during Trump’s second term, and the Supreme Court ruled in June that the administration acted within its authority in ending the status for about 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, a decision that could affect nearly 1.3 million people from 17 countries.
The Diesel Deal and the Sanctions Waiver
Crow’s post does not mention Trump or the diesel agreement by name, but it arrives in the middle of both. On Oct. 9, Trump announced on Truth Social that Putin had agreed in a phone call to supply the global market with Russian diesel: more than 300,000 tons immediately, 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons thereafter, with another 3 million tons contingent on the condition of Russia’s refineries. The Treasury Department issued a general license temporarily waiving sanctions on Russian diesel through April 7, 2027.
One week later, on Friday, Oct. 16, Trump signed an executive order invoking a national-interest waiver in the Graham Sanctioning Russia Act, which he had signed into law the previous month. The order suspended a 500 percent tariff on Russian goods and potential 100 percent tariffs on major buyers of Russian energy, two days before the law’s implementation deadline. Existing sanctions remain in place. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday the decision “seems wrong,” and Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis and John Curtis had already criticized the diesel deal.
Crow, who served as a House impeachment manager in the first Trump impeachment, which centered on Ukraine, said the president’s approach would hurt Americans as well as Ukrainians. Trump’s policies, Crow said, “do everything to cozy up to autocrats like Putin,” and by easing sanctions on Russia, he said, Trump is “prolonging war and suffering of civilians” and making Americans less safe. In a separate statement tied to a letter demanding answers on changes to Ukraine’s access to Starshield satellite service, Crow said Washington should stand with Ukrainians rather than “fund Putin’s war machine that is killing civilians.”
A Record on Ukraine Dating to 2021
Crow’s stance predates the current dispute. In December 2021, weeks before Russia’s full-scale invasion, he led a congressional delegation to Kyiv. On Feb. 24, 2022, the day of the invasion, he called for comprehensive sanctions to shut Russia out of the international financial system, long-term support for Ukrainian resistance, preparation for refugees and a realignment of NATO posture in Europe. “It’s time for the free world to unite and stop this tyranny,” he said.
That month, Crow and Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, introduced a bipartisan resolution reaffirming support for Ukraine, condemning Putin and calling for more “crippling” sanctions. In April 2022, he joined then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a trip to Kyiv, saying his focus was “weapons, weapons and weapons.” His office says he has since visited Ukraine several times, voted for every Ukraine supplemental package and was among the first members to call for F-16 transfers.
On the first anniversary of the invasion in 2023, Crow said, “Today, Ukraine stands.” After the House passed $95 billion in national security aid in April 2024, including more than $60 billion for Ukraine, he said, “Make no mistake: Vladimir Putin will not stop at Ukraine.” On the third anniversary, in February 2025, he said that supporting Ukraine “is not charity, it’s in our own self interest.”
The House has shown appetite for Ukraine measures over Trump’s objections. On June 4, 2026, it voted 226-195 to advance Ukraine aid and Russia sanctions after Democrats secured 218 signatures on a discharge petition, with 18 Republicans and one GOP-aligned independent joining. Whether Crow’s TPS bill can win a similar vote remains unclear, and with the Oct. 19 date arriving Monday, DHS has yet to announce its decision.