An Obama-appointed judge will prevent the Trump administration from deporting hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with temporary legal status later this month.
The ruling is a significant, although perhaps temporary, setback for the administration as it dismantles Biden-era policies that created new and expanded pathways for people to live in the United States, generally for two years with work authorization.
The order applies to about 532,000 people from the four countries who came to the United States since October 2022 under a program called CHNV that the Biden administration was heavily criticized for.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said she would issue a stay on an order for more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to leave the country, sparing them until the case advances to the next phase. Their permits were to be canceled April 24.
During a hearing, Talwani repeatedly questioned the government’s assertion that it could end humanitarian parole for the four nationalities.
She argued that immigrants in the program who are here legally now face an option of ‘fleeing the country’ or staying and ‘risk losing everything.’
‘The nub of the problem here is that the secretary, in cutting short the parole period afforded to these individuals, has to have a reasoned decision,’ Talwani said, adding that the explanation for ending the program was ‘based on an incorrect reading of the law.’
‘There was a deal and now that deal has been undercut,’ she said later in the hearing.
An Obama-appointed judge will prevent the Trump administration from deporting hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with temporary legal status later this month
Venezuelan migrants walk following their arrival on a flight after being deported from the United States
Last month, the administration revoked legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, setting them up for potential deportation in 30 days.
Uncertainty still remains for some 240,000 Ukrainians who sought refuge in the US following the Russian invasion in 2021.
Trump was said to be considering ending their legal status even before recent tensions between Washington and Kyiv.
They arrived with financial sponsors, applying online and paying their own airfare for two-year permits to live and work in the U.S. During that time, the beneficiaries needed to find other legal pathways if they wanted to stay longer in the U.S. Parole is a temporary status.
Trump has been ending legal pathways for immigrants to come to the U.S., implementing campaign promises to deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally.
Advocates, who called the administration´s action ‘unprecedented,’ said it would result in people losing their legal status and ability to work and argued that it violated federal rule-making.
The government’s lawyer, Brian Ward, argued in court that ending the program doesn’t mean that individuals couldn´t be considered for other immigration programs.
He also said the government wouldn’t prioritize them for deportation – something Talwani found suspect, given they could be arrested if they happened to go to the hospital or were involved in a car accident.
The order applies to about 532,000 people from the four countries who came to the United States since October 2022 under a program called CHNV that the Biden administration was heavily criticized for
District Judge Indira Talwani said she would issue a stay on an order for more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to leave the country, sparing them until the case advances to the next phase
The end of temporary protections for these immigrants has generated little political blowback among Republicans other than three Cuban-American representatives from Florida who called for preventing the deportation of the Venezuelans affected.
One of them, Rep. Maria Salazar of Miami, also joined about 200 congressional Democrats this week in cosponsoring a bill that would enable them to become lawful permanent residents.
It follows an earlier Trump administration decision to end what it called the ‘broad abuse’ of the humanitarian parole, a long-standing legal tool presidents have used to allow people from countries where there´s war or political instability to enter and temporarily live in the U.S.
During his campaign President Donald Trump promised to deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally, and as president he has been also ending legal pathways for immigrants to come to the U.S. and to stay.
DHS said parolees without a lawful basis to stay in the U.S. ‘must depart’ before their parole termination date.
‘Parole is inherently temporary, and parole alone is not an underlying basis for obtaining any immigration status,’ DHS said.
Before the new order, the beneficiaries of the program could stay in the U.S. until their parole expires, although the administration had stopped processing their applications for asylum, visas and other requests that might allow them to remain longer.
The Biden administration allowed up to 30,000 people a month from the four countries to come to the United States for two years with eligibility to work.
The end of temporary protections for these immigrants has generated little political blowback among Republicans
Trump has been ending legal pathways for immigrants to come to the U.S., implementing campaign promises to deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally
It persuaded Mexico to take back the same number from those countries because the U.S. could deport few, if any, to their homes.
Haitians and Cubans that are involved with the program are immediately eligible for taxpayer-funded federal benefits like Medicaid, food stamps and welfare.
Analysis by DailyMail.com indicates that the Medicaid cost, which costs around $9,175 per enrollee, would cost $1.8 billion if every Haitian who entered the country received it.
SNAP benefits, more commonly known as food stamps, would cost the country $451 million, with general welfare benefits climbing to $1.2 billion.
The three figures take the overall spend on benefits only to over an eyewatering $3.4 billion.
Even if only a quarter of the Haitians are getting all the benefits they are entitled to receive, that figure would stand at $850 million.
Average costs were obtained from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Department of Health & Human Services, and a Medicaid Commission.
Court documents show that the vetting process isn’t stringent, with an approval rating of 98.3 percent for Haitian applicants from January to June of last year.
In that time frame, 78,838 Haitians had applied to the program with the Department of Homeland Security adjudicating 64,285 cases. Of those, 63,214 applications were approved.
That figure was revealed in a lawsuit filed this year by the state of Texas and other Republican-led states who sued the Biden administration to block the program.
Other states including Florida, Tennessee and Arkansas argued that the program had left them with extra costs for health care, education and law enforcement.
They also argued that the Biden administration was inviting people who otherwise would have entered the country illegally.
Cuba generally accepted about one deportation flight a month, while Venezuela and Nicaragua refused to take any. All three are U.S. adversaries.
Haiti accepted many deportation flights, especially after a surge of migrants from the Caribbean country in the small border town of Del Rio, Texas, in 2021. But Haiti has been in constant turmoil, hampering U.S. efforts.
Since late 2022, more than half a million people have come to the U.S. under the policy, also known as CHNV.
It was a part of the Biden administration´s approach to encourage people to come through new legal channels while cracking down on those who crossed the border illegally.
