Judge blocks Trump administration from ending humanitarian parole for people in four countries
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani believes she will end the plan later this month. Working to help more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans is part of a broader legal effort to protect nationals from Ukraine, Afghanistan and other legally here.
Last month, the government removed legal protections from thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, leaving them to file lawsuits for potential deportation within 30 days. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said they will lose their legal status on April 24.
They arrived with financial sponsors and obtained a two-year license to live and work in the United States during this period, and if they want to stay in the U.S. with parole, the beneficiaries need to look for other legal avenues.
President Donald Trump has been ending legal avenues to come to the United States to immigrants, imposing campaign promises that would deport millions of illegal people.
In a motion ahead of the hearing, the plaintiff called the government’s actions “unprecedented” and said it would result in people losing their legal status and ability to work. The move, also known as “the meaning of the Administrative Procedure Law is against the law,” stipulates procedures that agents must follow when formulating rules. Lawyers for the Trump administration argue that the plaintiff lacks status and that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security affects the migration of immigrants in the program, known as CHNV, does not violate the Administrative Procedure Act. They also said the plaintiffs would not be able to indicate that the termination of the plan was illegal. “The DHS decided to terminate the existing grants for the CHNV program and parole under the scheme, which belongs to this statutory authorization and is commensurate with the notice requirements of the statute and regulation,” they wrote. “In addition, given the temporary nature of CHNV parole and the temporary nature of CHNV parole previously unable to seek reprol under the scheme, the harm to the public outweighs the harm to the public if the Secretary is not allowed to interrupt the program that she determined does not support the public interest.”
The end of temporary protections for these immigrants, except for three Cuban-Americans from Florida, calls for preventing deportation from Venezuela. One of them is Rep. Maria Salazar, Miami, who also joined about 200 Congressional Democrats this week to launch a bill that would make them legal permanent residents.
