Advocates are reeling after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to revoke (for now) a Biden-era parole program that granted temporary legal status for half a million migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The high court granted a stay of a U.S. District Court ruling that blocked the Trump administration’s effort to end the parole program, known as CHNV. Former President Joe Biden created the program that allowed migrants fleeing humanitarian crises, including violence and poverty, in their countries of origin to work in the United States for up to two years. The program was part of a broader effort to ease the rising number of migrants at the U.S. border.
Though the case is still pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Friday’s ruling allows the Trump administration to proceed with its aim to deport the hundreds of thousands of migrants.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, condemned the Supreme Court’s decision to grant the Trump administration a stay in the case. America’s first and only Black female Supreme Court justice warned of the humanitarian harm the Friday decision will cause for migrants.
“The Court has plainly botched this assessment…It requires next to nothing from the Government with respect to irreparable harm,” Jackson wrote in her dissent. “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.”
Jackson, who was appointed by President Biden in 2022, said she would have denied the Trump administration’s request for a stay in the case because there was “patently insufficient” proof of harm to the American public by allowing the migrants to keep their legal status until a final decision is made in the court.
“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,” she added.
Justice Jackson highlighted the lived experiences of the migrant parolees, who fled their home countries that are “afflicted by strife” with “unsafe living or working conditions.”
She added, “Parolees have sponsors here and, in many cases, have integrated into American neighborhoods and communities in the hopes of eventually securing long-term legal status.”
Guerline Jozef, executive director and founder of Haitian Bridge Alliance, a plaintiff in the case, said she was “outraged” by the ruling, noting that migrant parolees had a “lawful status” to be in the United States.
“Once again, the Trump Administration blatantly proves their disregard for the lives of those truly in need of protection by taking away their status and rendering them undocumented. We have already seen the traumatic impact on children and families afraid to even go to school, church or work,” Jozef.
“This population has done everything the federal government has asked of them and received a rescinded promise from the U.S. government in return,” she added. “This will be tremendously devastating for our communities, but we are strong and resilient, and we will continue to fight for them to be treated fairly under the law.”
Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center, said Friday’s decision marks the “largest such de-legalization in the modern era.”
“I cannot overstate how devastating this is: the Supreme Court has allowed the Trump Administration to unleash widespread chaos, not just for our clients and class members, but for their families, their workplaces, and their communities,” said Tumlin. “While we grieve with these communities today, we remain resolved in our fight for the dignity they deserve.”
