Alaska Daily News: Gambell is about 200 miles southwest of the Western Alaska hub city of Nome and about 50 miles from the tip of the Chukotka Peninsula in Siberia.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday, as initial details of the situation were emerging, said he did not expect a continual stream or “flotilla” of individuals traversing the same route. He also warned that travel in the region could be dangerous as a fall storm packing strong winds was expected.
[Alaska U. S. Senator Dan] Sullivan, in a statement, said he has encouraged federal authorities to have a plan in place in case “more Russians flee to Bering Strait communities in Alaska.”
“This incident makes two things clear: First, the Russian people don’t want to fight Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” Sullivan said. “Second, given Alaska’s proximity to Russia, our state has a vital role to play in securing America’s national security.”
It is unusual for someone to take this route to try to get into the U.S.
U.S. authorities in August stopped Russians without legal status 42 times who tried to enter the U.S. from Canada. That was up from 15 times in July and nine times in August 2021.
Russians also try to enter the U.S. through Mexico, which does not require visas. Earlier this year, U.S. authorities contended with a spate of Russians who hoped to claim asylum if they reached an inspection booth at an official crossing.
Some trace the spike to before Russia invaded Ukraine, attributing it to the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny last year.
Anchorage immigration attorney Margaret Stock told alaskasnewssource the men are likely to be eligible for asylum, although she didn’t know the specifics of their case.
“Under U.S. law you are eligible for asylum if you don’t want to serve in a military that commits war crimes, and the Russian military has been committing massive numbers of war crimes,” Stock said.
And while Stock said the situation is unusual in Alaska, people cross into other parts of the country frequently to seek asylum.
“Although in Alaska we are not used to people walking up to our border or taking a boat up to our border seeking asylum, it’s very, very common in Florida, California other parts of the United States, because people have to get to a U.S. border in order to claim asylum,” Stock said.
Stock said the process includes formally applying for asylum and undergoing a hearing with an immigration judge. She said the process could easily take several months.
