New York, May 31 – The US Supreme Court has paved the way for former President Donald Trump’s administration to terminate humanitarian parole protections for over half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The court overturned a previous ruling by a federal district court that had upheld these protections, as per agency report.
In a parallel development, the court also permitted the Trump administration to revoke temporary legal status for approximately 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in a separate case. These legal developments open the door for the administration to eliminate temporary legal protections for thousands of migrants, pushing the number of individuals potentially facing deportation to nearly one million.
In response to the growing influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border, the Biden administration had introduced a parole program in late 2022 and early 2023 for citizens from the aforementioned countries. This program allowed qualifying individuals to live and work in the United States for up to two years, protecting nearly 532,000 people from deportation.
However, shortly after beginning his second term, Donald Trump issued an executive order instructing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to dismantle all existing parole programs. Acting on this directive, Noem formally announced the termination of the programs in March, specifying that all parole authorizations would expire by April 24.
A federal district judge in Massachusetts had initially halted Noem’s decision, siding with a group of 23 plaintiffs that included several parolees and a non-profit organization. This group had challenged the legality of ending the parole program entirely.
The Trump administration subsequently appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Although the appeals court declined to stay the district court’s ruling while the appeal was pending, the matter was taken to the Supreme Court, which ultimately decided in favor of lifting the lower court’s block—thereby allowing the Trump administration’s plans to proceed.
