The Trump administration faces at least four lawsuits from activist groups, migrants and U.S. citizens for eliminating deportation protections that have saved hundreds of thousands of migrants from war, poverty and persecution in their home countries.
One of the federal suits seeks to block a presidential order ending humanitarian parole, while three others target the administration’s decision to cut short President Joe Biden’s extension of Temporary Protected Status programs.
Humanitarian parole must be preserved because it has proved to save lives and enrich the economy and the lives of host citizens, plaintiffs said in a suit filed Feb. 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Massachusetts.
Karen Tumlin
“Thanks to these popular and successful humanitarian parole processes, countless Americans opened their hearts and homes to their global neighbors,” said Karen Tumlin, director of the Justice Action Center, one of the plaintiffs in the action.
Parole grants permission to migrants facing urgent humanitarian situations to enter the U.S. temporarily to work. The status requires recipients be sponsored by American hosts and does not provide a pathway to citizenship. And according to the Associated Press, about 875,000 sponsored migrants from Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Ukraine have benefitted from parole programs.
“Trump is targeting individual freedoms and slashing longstanding legal processes with no consideration for the harm it inflicts on newcomers, their American sponsors, and our economy — and that’s why we are taking him to court,” Tumlin said.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance, Human Rights First, eight parole beneficiaries and three parolee sponsors also are plaintiffs in the humanitarian parole case.
Guerline Jozef
Eliminating the programs is unconscionable given the great dangers and hardships migrants will face when forced to return to countries like Afghanistan, Haiti and Ukraine, said Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. “It seems as though the chaos and the cruelty is the point, and that has real, devastating consequences for people who are trying to lawfully flee persecution or reunify with their families in the U.S.”
Banishing the system is especially tragic amid the simultaneous ending of asylum and other narrow avenues of finding refuge in the U.S., said Anwen Hughes, director of legal strategy at Human Rights First.
“Humanitarian parole has been a lifeline in an otherwise nearly impossible system for people seeking to safely reunite with their loved ones or family members in the U.S.,” she said. “We cannot let the Trump administration take away one of the last remaining viable pathways to safety in this country, one that has proved mutually beneficial to sponsors, beneficiaries and their communities alike.”
Separately, Haitian-Americans United, the Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts and the UndocuBlack Network filed suit in the same federal court March 3 to block administration efforts to end TPS for immigrants from Haiti and Venezuela.
TPS is a program administered by the secretary of Homeland Security for immigrants unable to return to their home countries due to safety concerns. Those granted the status are allowed to work in the U.S. Haitians have been eligible for the program since 2010 and Venezuelans since 2021, according to the suit.
“Both nations are in collapse — beset by political violence and without functioning governments or basic infrastructure. For thousands of Haitian and Venezuelan nationals living in the United States, TPS is thus literally lifesaving, allowing them to remain here instead of returning to the immense dangers of their home countries,” the complaint states.
TPS also greatly benefits Americans, the group argues. “With the work authorization that comes with TPS protection, Haitian and Venezuelan TPS holders hold jobs throughout the U.S. economy, have started and grown families in the United States, and are deeply involved in their communities.”
Kristi Noem
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced Feb. 21 the TPS extensions would be revoked, giving Venezuelans until April 2 to return home and Haitians until Aug. 3.
“This is part of President Trump’s promise to rescind policies that were magnets for illegal immigration and inconsistent with the law,” the department said. “For decades the TPS system has been exploited and abused. For example, Haiti has been designated for TPS since 2010. The data shows each extension of the country’s TPS designation allowed more Haitian nationals, even those who entered the U.S. illegally, to qualify for legal protected status.”
The UndocuBlack Network condemned “the Trump administration’s decision to strip Temporary Protected Status for up to 500,000 Haitian migrants — a move rooted in xenophobic rhetoric, racist tropes and a years-long campaign to dismantle protections for Haitian families. This cruel revocation, set to take effect in August 2025, will tear apart families, destabilize communities and force vulnerable individuals back to Haiti, a place still grappling with political collapse, environmental devastation and rampant violence.”
Meanwhile, two advocacy groups in Maryland and one in California filed separate lawsuits in February to challenge the termination of TPS eligibility for Venezuelans, NBC News reported.
Immigration rights organizations Make the Road New York and CASA sued on behalf of Venezuelan members, arguing the decision to end TPS status is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional. The action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
“This unconstitutional action forces nearly 600,000 Venezuelans and their families currently living in the U.S. with TPS protection into the untenable position of potentially being forced to return to a country experiencing what has been described as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the history of the Western Hemisphere,” the groups said.
The National TPS Alliance and eight Venezuelan TPS holders filed a federal suit in California Feb. 20 charging the revocation of TPS status is illegal because it already was granted by Biden before leaving office.
“We reject the Trump administration’s racist and inaccurate portrayal of Venezuelan TPS holders. Venezuelan TPS holders, like all TPS holders, are lawfully present here pursuant to protection granted because it is not safe for them to return to their country right now. Illegally rescinding their lawful status is cruel and harmful for both TPS holders and our communities,” the organization said.
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