DHS to revoke legal status of 532,000 ‘humanitarian parole’ migrants

• More than half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela living in the U.S. legally are at risk of deportation after DHS announced plans to rescind a Biden-era humanitarian parole program, dubbed CHNV. Those individuals have come to the U.S. since October 2022 with financial sponsors and a two-year permit to live and work in the country.
• The Trump administration’s attempts to end Biden-era humanitarian parole programs were first challenged in court in February.
• DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said that CHNV recipients will lose their immigration status on April 24, or 30 days after the new order was filed in the National Register.

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More than half a million migrants currently living in the U.S. legally will soon be at risk of deportation after the Trump administration announced plans to rescind a Biden-era humanitarian parole program. The new order, which was announced Friday, March 21, by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), will effectively strip 532,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela of their temporary legal status next month.

According to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the administration will be revoking the temporary legal status of migrants who came to the U.S. under former President Joe Biden’s CHNV program, which was first enacted in October 2022. Those individuals arrived with financial sponsors and permits to live and work in the U.S. for two years.

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Now, those migrants have roughly 30 days to self-deport, though Noem said some could be allowed to stay in the country on a case-by-case basis.

How is the administration justifying its decision?

It’s part of a larger push by the Trump administration to address “broad abuse” of the humanitarian parole framework. However, that framework has long been used by U.S. presidents to offer people from countries suffering war and political instability a temporary pathway to immigrate.

“Parole is inherently temporary, and parole alone is not an underlying basis for obtaining any immigration status,” DHS wrote in its filing with the Federal Register. DHS added that the parole programs are “inconsistent” with an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day back in office.

DHS also cites the historical precedent of the parole authority, writing, “Under the law, the determination to parole an alien into the country should only be made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account each alien’s unique circumstances.” Under the CHNV parole program, up to 30,000 people entered the U.S. each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, as the Biden administration sought ways to crack down on illegal immigration while broadening new pathways to legal migration.

In defending the agency’s decision, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin claimed that migrants who participated in the CHNV program were “loosely vetted,” adding, “The termination of the CHNV parole programs, and the termination of parole for those who exploited it, is a return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First.”

Lawsuit challenges the end of humanitarian parole

The Trump administration’s attempts to end humanitarian parole programs have already been challenged in court by both American citizens and immigrants, who sued the administration in February. That lawsuit was filed shortly after it was revealed that Trump was considering revoking the legal status of 240,000 Ukrainians who came to the country following Russia’s invasion. The plan to revoke the status of CHNV individuals was announced around the same time.

Responding to Friday’s DHS announcement, Karen Tumlin, the founder and director of Justice Action Center, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit, said it was “reckless, cruel and counterproductive,” adding that it is “going to cause needless chaos and heartbreak for families and communities across the country.”

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While Trump promised to launch a mass deportation of people living in the U.S. illegally during his 2024 campaign, his administration has also worked to dismantle legal pathways and target those who were granted temporary protected status during the previous administration.