Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration to End Humanitarian Parole for Migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela

Today, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.  The Court order granting a stay of the injunction barring the Trump administration from lifting the relief from removal.

Justice Jackson, joined by Justice Sotomayor, dissented from the grant of the application for a stay and wrote that

“The Court has plainly botched [its] assessment today. 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. Even if the Government is likely to win on the merits, in our legal system, success takes time and the stay standards require more than anticipated victory. I would have denied the Government’s application because its harm-related showing is patently insufficient. The balance of the equities also
weighs heavily in respondents’ favor. While it is apparent that the Government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum predecision damage, court-ordered stays exist to minimize—not maximize—harm to litigating parties.”

UPDATE (May 30, 11;30 PST):  A critical response:

“The U.S. Supreme Court today issued an order granting the Trump administration’s emergency request to revoke humanitarian parole for more than 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, who entered through what is collectively known as the “CHNV” program. The ruling in Svitlana Doe v. Noem means hundreds of thousands of individuals who came to the United States with permission will be left without work permits or protection from deportation.

Please attribute the following quote on that order to Talia Inlender, deputy director at the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law:

“Today’s one paragraph order from the Supreme Court upends the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who came lawfully to the United States through the CHNV parole program. For over 70 years, Republican and Democratic presidents alike have used the humanitarian parole authority to allow non-citizens to enter the U.S. for humanitarian reasons or in the public interest. The CHNV program followed this proud tradition of exercising the parole authority to welcome newcomers in need. Now, those people will have the rug pulled out from under them — separating families and sending people back to dangerous conditions in their home countries. It will also inflict deep harm to U.S. communities who have come to rely on those who came through the CHNV program, hired them, and welcomed them as neighbors. This is true despite the fact that the government has made no serious showing that it will be harmed by having its unprecedented decision to preemptively revoke all existing CHNV parole grants be vetted by the courts before its devastating consequences are unleashed. It is a dark day for CHNV parolees, their U.S.-based sponsors, and all Americans who still believe in the freedom to welcome.”

Read a brief history of immigration parole HERE.

Learn about CILP’s successful defense of the CHNV program in 2024 against a Texas-led challenge HERE.”

KJ