Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Suspending Biden-Era Migrant Parole Programs

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to resume processing applications from foreign nationals living in the United States under Biden-era humanitarian parole programs who are seeking work permits or more permanent immigration status.

In handing down her order, District Court Judge Indira Talwani agreed with the Trump administration that the secretary of homeland security has broad discretion to direct immigration policy.

However, she rejected a claim that suspending the parole programs was within that broad discretion, writing that “their conclusion that the Secretary’s actions are wholly shielded from judicial review is incorrect.”

The judge agreed with two organizations that sued the Trump administration—the Justice Action Center and Human Rights First—saying they were likely to succeed on the merits of their argument that any such suspension of the programs was arbitrary and capricious.

Talwani also said it was not in the public interest for hundreds of thousands of immigrants to lose their legal status in the United States.

“This court emphasizes, as it did in its prior order, that it is not in the public interest to manufacture a circumstance in which hundreds of thousands of individuals will, over the course of several months, become unlawfully present in the country, such that these individuals cannot legally work in their communities or provide for themselves and their families,” Talwani wrote in her order.

Talwani’s decision grants a reprieve to thousands of beneficiaries of humanitarian parole programs, including Uniting for Ukraine, Operation Allies Welcome, Central American Minors Parole, Family Reunification Parole, Military Parole in Place, and the process available to Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans known as CHNV humanitarian parole.

Under those programs, individuals from Afghanistan, Latin America, and Ukraine were granted a two-year parole to live in the country on humanitarian or public benefit grounds.

The Trump administration has sought to end the use of the parole program, arguing the Biden administration abused it to “indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country.”

In August 2024, the Biden administration put the parole program on hold after authorities discovered fraudulent information in thousands of application forms filed by sponsors.

After taking office in January, President Donald Trump terminated the CBP One app service, which was established under the previous administration to allow migrants outside the United States to schedule appointments at U.S. ports of entry.

Following Trump’s order, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a directive ending what he described as “the broad abuse of humanitarian parole,” returning the program to a case-by-case basis.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials subsequently stopped processing new parole applications.

In her ruling, Talwani said federal law still requires agencies under DHS to follow a lengthy process for granting or denying parole and other immigration relief.

One of the Trump administration’s orders “gives no reasoned explanation for its decision and thus no basis for the suggestion that such action is ‘consistent with applicable statutes, regulations and court orders,’” she wrote.

Another directive ordering an examination of certain parole programs to determine if they were strictly in accordance with law was “unclear” and included “no findings that the Parole Programs are not strictly” in accordance with law, she said.

Human Rights Group Welcomes Ruling

Anwen Hughes, director of legal strategy for refugee programs at Human Rights First, welcomed the decision. She said the ruling “reaffirms what we have always known to be true: our government has a legal obligation to respect the rights of all humanitarian parole beneficiaries and the Americans who have welcomed them into their communities.”

“We are pleased that the court has again rightly recognized the harm the government’s arbitrary decision-making has inflicted on innocent people, and we share the judge’s hope that the government will adhere to this order and immediately resume adjudicating our clients’ applications for relief,” she said.

Last month, Talwani blocked the Trump administration from revoking the parole status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.

The administration has asked the Supreme Court to pause her decision, arguing it prevents the executive branch “from exercising its discretionary authority over a key aspect of the Nation’s immigration and foreign policy and thwarts Congress’s express vesting of that decision in the Secretary, not courts.”

The Epoch Times contacted DHS for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.