Biden announces a new program to help Ukrainian refugees enter the U.S.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Washington.

President Joe Biden announced a new program that will speed up the U.S. asylum process for Ukrainian refugees.

The Unite for Ukraine program will allow individual Americans and nonprofits to sponsor Ukrainian refugees if they can financially support them.

Biden said Thursday at the White House that the program will be fast, streamlined and that it will ensure the United States honors its commitment to the people of Ukraine.

The new refugee sponsorship program was unveiled by Biden as part of a larger package of assistance for Ukrainians. He announced new military hardware and direct government aid.

According to a fact sheet from the Department of Homeland Security, the program will be centered around a web portal where U.S.-based individuals and groups can apply to become sponsors. The portal will be live on Monday.

To be eligible for the expedited process, Ukrainians must have lived in the country for at least one year. Before being admitted, they have to undergo vaccinations, screening and background checks.

In March, Biden promised that the United States would accept 100,000 refugees. No one has given instructions on how to enter.

Thousands of Ukrainians were granted refugee status in the U.S. after they flew to Mexico and arrived in person.

Ukrainians seeking for asylum walk towards the United States on the Mexican side of El Chaparral Crossing port in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on April 8, 2022.

Title 42 requires Customs and Border Protection to expel asylum seekers rather than let them into the United States to wait for a hearing, but Ukrainians have been exempt from that rule since late March.

More than 5,000 Ukrainians were held by the US Customs and Border Protection in March, more than four times the number of Ukrainians it held in February. Most of the people were allowed into the country.

Ukrainians who show up at the border will be turned away and told to go to the website, according to the DHS fact sheet.

Hundreds of Ukrainians who are already at or near the U.S.-Mexico border could be stranded because of this policy shift.

More than 5 million people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the war, most of them women and children, according to the United Nations.