A federal judge has temporarily halted the Trump administration’s effort to strip legal protections from over 500,000 immigrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti, dealing another blow to the president’s aggressive deportation agenda.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston issued an emergency order preventing the termination of parole programs for migrants from the four countries, ruling that the administration’s abrupt revocation violated immigration law. The decision marks the latest judicial setback for Trump’s hardline policies targeting Latin American migrants.
The parole program, initially established by the Biden administration in October 2022, allowed up to 30,000 migrants per month from these crisis-stricken nations to live and work legally in the U.S. for two years. The policy was designed as a humanitarian response to worsening conditions in their home countries, including political repression, economic collapse, and violence.
However, in March, the Trump administration announced it would abruptly end the program, giving beneficiaries just 30 days’ notice before their protections expired on April 24. Judge Talwani ruled that the government’s interpretation of immigration law was flawed, noting that expedited removal applies only to those who enter the U.S. illegally not migrants lawfully admitted under parole.
The ruling comes as Trump intensifies his anti-immigration rhetoric ahead of the November election, vowing to deport “millions” of undocumented migrants if re-elected. His administration has already taken extreme measures, including invoking wartime powers to deport hundreds of Venezuelan asylum seekers to El Salvador, where they face imprisonment.
Immigrant advocates celebrated the court’s decision, arguing that revoking parole would have thrown hundreds of thousands into legal limbo, separating families and destabilizing communities. The Biden campaign has condemned Trump’s policies as cruel and chaotic, while the Trump campaign insists stricter enforcement is necessary to secure the border.
With legal challenges mounting, the fate of these migrants remains uncertain. For now, Judge Talwani’s order offers temporary relief but the broader battle over U.S. immigration policy is far from over.
