Skip Navigation
2 comments

  • Summary of the article: ::: spoiler spoiler

    U.S. Supreme Court Lets Trump Revoke Humanitarian Legal Status for Migrants

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday let President Donald Trump’s administration revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican president’s drive to step up deportations.

    The court put on hold Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s order halting the administration’s move to end the immigration “parole” granted to 532,000 of these migrants by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, potentially exposing many of them to rapid removal, while the case plays out in lower courts.

    Immigration parole is a form of temporary permission under American law to be in the country for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit,” allowing recipients to live and work in the United States.

    The Department of Homeland Security subsequently moved to terminate them in March, cutting short the two-year parole grants.

    The administration said revoking the parole status would make it easier to place migrants in a fast-track deportation process called “expedited removal.”

    As with many of the court’s orders issued in an emergency fashion, Friday’s decision was unsigned and gave no reasoning.

    The Supreme Court on May 19 also let Trump end a deportation protection called temporary protected status that had been granted under Biden to about 350,000 Venezuelans living in the United States, while that legal dispute plays out.

    Biden starting in 2022 let Venezuelans who entered the United States by air request a two-year parole if they passed security checks and had a U.S. financial sponsor.

    A group of migrants granted parole and Americans who serve as their sponsors sued, claiming the administration violated federal law governing the actions of government agencies.

    The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put the judge’s decision on hold.

    "Once again, the Trump administration blatantly proves their disregard for the lives of those truly in need of protection by taking away their status and rendering them undocumented.

    The administration called Friday’s decision a victory, asserting that the migrants granted parole had been poorly vetted.

    Those applications had been frozen by Trump’s administration but the freeze was lifted this week, said Tumlin, adding: “Those should be processed right now.”

    Migrants with parole status reacted to Friday’s decision with sadness and disappointment.

    “We complied with all the requirements the United States government asked for,” said Padilla, who lives in Austin, Texas, and delivers Amazon packages.

    Retired university professor Wilfredo Sanchez, 73, has had parole status for a year and a half, living in Denver with his U.S. citizen daughter, a doctor.

    Carlos Daniel Urdaneta, 30, has lived in Atlanta for three years with parole status, working in a restaurant, since coming to the United States to earn money to send to his ill mother in Venezuela :::