The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration’s request to terminate a program that had allowed over 500,000 individuals from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela to temporarily reside and work in the United States. The decision allows the administration to proceed with ending the legal protections while a legal challenge against this effort continues in lower courts.
The high court granted an emergency request from the Justice Department, thereby suspending a federal district court order that had blocked Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s decision to broadly revoke humanitarian parole granted to migrants from these four countries through the special CHNV program. This program had temporarily shielded approximately 532,000 people from deportation.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority decision. Justice Jackson, joined by Justice Sotomayor, argued that pausing the lower court’s order would inflict “needless human suffering” before a final judicial determination on the legal merits of the case. She criticized the majority for prioritizing the disruption of the lives of half a million migrants while dissenting courts consider their legal claims, asserting that it is not in the public’s interest.
President Trump’s administration has frequently sought emergency intervention from the Supreme Court as it defends numerous lawsuits challenging its policies. This case marks another instance of heightened tensions between the administration and the federal judiciary over its immigration policies.
The legal dispute concerning the termination of temporary legal status for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans is separate from other challenges to the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants, which some courts have blocked. However, the Supreme Court has previously allowed the Department of Homeland Security to revoke protected status for roughly 350,000 Venezuelans in a separate action.
Federal immigration law, since 1952, has permitted the executive branch to grant parole to noncitizens for humanitarian reasons. The Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration established the CHNV parole processes in late 2022 and early 2023. These processes required migrants seeking parole to have a sponsor in the U.S. who was lawfully present and authorized them to work for a period of two years. The Biden administration initiated these programs to manage the increasing number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, arguing that these protections facilitated legal immigration. However, the program did not allow for the renewal of parole beyond the initial two-year period.
Shortly after assuming his second term, President Trump issued an executive order directing the Secretary of Homeland Security to terminate all parole programs, including CHNV. Acting on this order, Secretary Noem announced in March that the CHNV program would end, with existing grants of parole expiring by April 24th. This action aligns with President Trump’s broader efforts to reduce immigration into the U.S., a key issue during his 2024 re-election campaign.
A group of 23 individuals, including CHNV parolees, and a nonprofit organization challenged Secretary Noem’s decision to terminate the program. A federal district court judge in Massachusetts initially agreed to halt the blanket revocation of the migrants’ temporary legal status, finding that federal law requires parole decisions to be made on a case-by-case basis, thus preventing a categorical termination.
The Trump administration appealed this decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, which declined to stay the district court’s order pending appeal. Subsequently, the Justice Department sought intervention from the Supreme Court.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in court filings that the district court’s injunction nullified a central immigration policy decision of the administration, disrupting carefully calibrated policies aimed at deterring illegal entry, infringing on core Executive Branch powers, and undermining democratically approved policies highlighted in the recent election.
However, lawyers representing the parole beneficiaries countered that without the district court’s relief, approximately half a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans lawfully present in the U.S. would have become undocumented, legally unemployable, and subject to expedited mass expulsion by midnight on April 24th. They argued in their filing to the justices that while the Secretary is not obligated to continue the CHNV parole process indefinitely, she must adhere to required procedures and correctly apply the law before revoking parole, which would disrupt the lives of these individuals and cause significant disruption to their families, employers, and communities. Allowing the Trump administration to proceed with the mass termination of parole, they contended, would lead to immense and unnecessary human suffering.
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