Tragedy shatters Ukrainian family’s American dreams

When Ganna Stogniy and Vadym Mukiienko moved to the United States from Ukraine with their two sons in 2023, they had one goal — to find safety.

On Sept. 18, that dream was shattered when Vadym Mukiienko died on the job at a construction site in Tacoma.

As Stogniy and her sons face the grief of the tragic loss, they are also facing the uncertain outcome of an impending immigration deadline.

In approximately one month, they may see the end of their legal immigration status and work authorization.

The family settled in Covington after moving to the United States through the Uniting for Ukraine program under the Biden administration in November 2023.

The program requires that the participants apply for re-parole six months ahead of the expiry of their original two year parole. The family applied for re-parole on time, but have yet to be approved.

Typically, this type of application processing is slow but functional. This year, no applications were processed at all for five months when President Trump directed the acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to stop processing them after only three days in office.

In June, a lower court ruling reversed this directive and a memo was sent out to officially lift the freeze on processing parole renewals. Despite lifting that freeze, InvestigateWest found that many others in similar situations are still not receiving approvals.

In this challenging time, Stogniy reached out to the Ukrainian Community of Federal Way for support.

Federal Way’s Vitaliy Piekhotin is one member of that organization who is working to help Stogniy.

He told the Mirror that there are many others in Federal Way who are experiencing similar fear and impossible choices. At the recent Ukrainian flag raising at City Hall, for example, he shared that some community members were scared to attend it for fear of ICE raids, whether they have legal status or not.

“As a human they have their own rights, and they should be protected by the government who offered them this chance to survive the war and consequences of the war,” Piekhotin said, explaining that people moved here after being invited by the previous administration, only to have the current administration take that offer of safety and opportunity to participate fully in their new home away from them.

“Now people are staying and hiding at home because they have no possibility to work, to study, go to schools, colleges, and it’s unacceptable,” Piekhotin said.

For Stogniy, returning to Ukraine is not an option because of the ongoing violence there. She hopes that in the wake of her family’s recent tragedy, she will be allowed to stay. She has even appealed to her local member of Congress, Rep. Kim Schrier, who shares Stogniy’s career path as a pediatrician.

In another immigrant family’s case in Federal Way, Sen. Patty Murray spoke out in support of community member Cuong Van Huynh, who runs the Honey Bear restaurant.

Stogniy hopes for a similar statement of support from Kim Schrier. To the Mirror, Schrier said: “While we can’t comment or share info about specific casework for privacy reasons, if you or someone you know is dealing with an immigration or USCIS issue, please reach out to our office at 425-657-1001 for assistance.”

Tragedy strikes

Mukiienko was working for Sky City Trucking LLC when he lost his life on Sept. 18. The company is based in Fife and Mukiienko delivered a load to a construction site near Alexander Avenue East and State Route 509 in Tacoma.

The incident took place in the morning, but Stogniy wasn’t informed until 12 hours later, when staff from Sky City Trucking came to her house to tell her what happened, she said. They told her that her husband had been delivering large pipes to the construction site. The pipes fell onto him and crushed him.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s office lists his cause of death as accidental, due to “multiple blunt force injuries,” but no further details. Sky City Trucking has not responded to a request for comment from the Mirror.

The investigation by the Washington Department of Labor and Industries into his death will most likely take at least six months, Stogniy said she was told, which just adds to her list of reasons that she hopes to be able to stay in the United States — at least until that investigation is complete.

Speaking out about this incident and her family’s tenuous status could put her at risk of attention from immigration enforcement if she doesn’t get approved for re-parole, but Stogniy said she cannot be silent.

If anything, her vulnerable status makes her even more determined to speak out.

“During an investigation, facts can be hidden because of the fear of immigration status. Evil people can use it for their own gain,” Stogniy said through an interpreter. “Those big mega companies and corporations, they can use their forces like lawyers or judicial branches to press on someone unprotected, like as a widow, as refugees, as immigrants who are waiting for our status.”

She is also sharing her story to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else, Stogniy said.

“As a doctor, I know that when a mistake is done, if it is hidden, it can be repeated again,” Stogniy said. “I just want to know the truth of what happened to my husband.”

Stogniy is the tenth medical doctor in her family and said she has always had a passion for medicine and for helping people.

In Ukraine, she was a pediatrician and family doctor. It was hard to leave her practice and her patients there to move to the United States, but in the end, she said she had to think of her children’s safety.

Her qualifications as a physician do not transfer directly to the United States, so since moving here she has been working hard to find a way to continue her career.

Through programs at Green River College in Auburn, she has already received certifications as an emergency room tech, a nursing assistant and a phlebotomist.

She started work as a CNA on Sept. 29. If she loses her work authorization, she’ll be at risk of losing that job.

Washington state will also lose a CNA, a role that the state desperately needs more of. A study by HRSA projects that Washington state will be tied with North Carolina to face the highest staffing shortages of nurses in the country — a gap of 22%.

So far, she said her first few days in her new role were intense, with a lot of training, but the hardest part was returning home where she is “once again greeted by an empty house.”

For now she will keep working to provide care to the community in her new job and waiting to hear news of both her application for re-parole and for the results of the investigation into her husband’s death.