The revocation means nearly half a million people could be potentially deported
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said it will revoke temporary legal pathways for more than half a million people, setting them up for potential deportation in about a month.
The order, announced on Friday, applies to about 532,000 people from four countries - Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela - who have arrived in the United States since October 2022.
All of the people impacted arrived with financial sponsors and were given two-year permits to live and work in the US under the humanitarian parole programme known as CHNV, an acronym for the four countries, set up under the Biden administration.
On 20 January, former Department of Homeland Security secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a directive to end “the broad abuse of humanitarian parole and return the program to a case-by-case basis".
Current DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, said on Friday that impacted people will lose their legal status 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register on 25 March, which would mean that parolees without a lawful basis to stay in the US would need to leave before their parole termination date.
Humanitarian parole is a long-standing legal tool that presidents have used to allow people from countries experiencing war or political instability to enter and temporarily live in the US.
During his presidential campaign, US President Donald Trump promised to get tough on illegal immigration.
However, since reentering office, he has also been cracking down on legal pathways for people already inside the US and those planning to come from outside.
Before the new order, the beneficiaries of the programme could stay in the US until their parole expires, although the administration had stopped processing their applications for asylum, visas and other requests that might allow them to remain longer.
The administration’s decision has already been challenged in federal courts. A group of US citizens and immigrants sued the Trump administration for ending humanitarian parole and are seeking to reinstate the programmes for the four nationalities.
'Suddenly revoking the lawful status of hundreds of thousands of CHNV humanitarian parole recipients is going to cause needless chaos and heartbreak for families across the country' - Karen Tumlin, Justice Action Center
Lawyers and activists have denounced the government's decision.
Karen Tumlin, founder and director at Justice Action Center, said in a press release, “Suddenly revoking the lawful status of hundreds of thousands of CHNV humanitarian parole recipients is going to cause needless chaos and heartbreak for families and communities across the country. The Administration’s targeting of this successful and popular process - one of the last remaining safe and lawful pathways - is reckless, cruel and counterproductive.”
The Biden administration allowed up to 30,000 people a month from the four countries to come to the US for two years with the eligibility to work.
It was part of the Biden administration's approach to encouraging people to come through new legal channels while cracking down on those who crossed the border illegally. The programme was said to reduce the number of migrants crossing the border illegally.
Advocates for the federal government said that migrants admitted through the policy helped with a farm labour shortage in the US.
The Biden administration decided last fall not to allow CHNV beneficiaries to renew their two-year work permits under the programme, saying they could apply for other benefits, like asylum and Temporary Protected Status.
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