The Trump administration has begun terminating temporary legal status for more than 500,000 migrants awaiting immigration proceedings.
The Department of Homeland Security started issuing termination notices June 12 to Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans enrolled in the CHNV parole program. Clearance for the action was granted in a May 30 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued warnings to recipients June 6 the terminations were pending and included revocation of “any employment authorization based on being paroled under the CHNV parole programs.”
The ongoing notices of termination include criticisms of immigrants and the Biden administration, which launched the initiative in 2022: “This program was abused by the previous administration to admit hundreds of thousands of poorly vetted illegal aliens into the United States.”
Tricia McLaughlin
Assistant Secretary of State Tricia McLaughlin said abuse of the program included allowing immigrants to work and blaming Republicans for enabling criminals to enter the U.S.
“Ending the CHNV parole programs, as well as the paroles of those who exploited it, will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First,” she said.
The department urged program participants to self-deport using the CBP Home Mobile App, a newly created tool to incentivize migrants to leave the country willingly. It promises $1,000 exit bonuses to those who comply.
Haitian Bridge Alliance said it “strongly condemns” cancellation of the program which granted recipients legal entry into the U.S.
“This is not policy — it is punishment. It is a calculated move by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to dismantle lawful pathways that served both humanitarian and strategic purposes,” the advocacy organization said. “The CHNV parole program helped to reduce irregular migration while supporting economic integration, especially for communities fleeing violence, political instability and natural disasters. Now, these same communities are being forced into chaos with no individualized review, no legal recourse and no due process.”
Those suddenly faced with deportation will return to countries to endure violence, political oppression and intense economic hardship, Executive Director Guerline Jozef added. “Families should not be torn apart by a policy that offers no pathway forward — only fear, confusion and exile.”
Karen Tumlin
The DHS action worsens conditions for immigrants and their local communities, said Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center. “The Trump administration is actively creating a larger class of undocumented people by literally de-legalizing them and taking away their work authorization early, a cruel slap in the face to hundreds of thousands of people who followed the exact processes the U.S. government required of them.”
The government’s decision is especially agonizing and unjust because it punishes people who followed the rules to enter the country, said Trish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge. “With U.S.-based sponsors initiating their applications, they passed security screenings, paid for their own travel, obtained work authorization, and have begun rebuilding their lives. Tearing up that social contract overnight does nothing to advance our national security or humanitarian leadership.”
Terminating CHNV was one of the stated goals of the “Securing Our Borders” executive order President Donald Trump signed Jan. 20.
CHNV and other legal entry programs are part of “the large-scale invasion” of the U.S. by foreign nationals, the order claims. “My administration will marshal all available resources and authorities to stop this unprecedented flood of illegal aliens into the United States.”
In a separate order handed down May 19, justices approved the administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants, a move that had been challenged in National TPS Alliance v. Noem.
The Supreme Court “plainly botched” its ruling in Svitlana, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said in a dissent joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “It requires next to nothing from the government with respect to irreparable harm. And it undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.”