Judge Pauses Trump Bid to End Migrant Parole for Thousands (1)

A federal judge in Boston temporarily blocked the Trump administration from terminating protections for more than half a million immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela admitted through a Biden-era humanitarian parole program.

Parole terminations for the so-called “CHNV” program are stayed pending further court action, Judge Indira Talwani of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts said in an order issued Monday.

She found that plaintiffs were likely to succeed on claims that the termination of parole protections was arbitrary and capricious. Plaintiffs also met requirements to proceed on a class basis, Talwani said.

The order is a setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to carry out its mass deportation agenda, in part by rolling back temporary protections for many immigrant groups. The Department of Homeland Security last month issued a notice formally terminating the CHNV program.

More than 532,000 people had been admitted to the US from the four countries by December 2024. Parole protections would have ended April 24 without the stay.

Presidents of both parties have used parole authority for decades to allow foreign nationals to temporarily enter the US without a formal legal status for humanitarian reasons or when it serves the public benefit. Parolees are eligible to apply for employment authorization while they seek long-term status, a boon for many industries in need of workers.

DHS earlier this year suspended entry through the Uniting for Ukraine program and a number of other parole pathways, including for Afghans fleeing the Taliban government and migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

The agency also froze approval of new benefits like green cards and work permits for immigrants admitted through those parole programs while it vetted the programs for fraud and security concerns.

Plaintiffs, including immigrants admitted through parole programs as well as US citizen sponsors, brought a lawsuit arguing that the termination of the parole programs and suspension of new benefits violated the Administrative Procedure Act and due process.

The government argued that the decision to terminate parole relief was shielded from judicial scrutiny. While Talwani agreed that the court’s role in reviewing that action was limited, she found that it was not precluded from reviewing the plaintiffs’ claims under the APA or staying termination of parole when it is revoked without case-by-case review.

While Congress gave the secretary discretion on whether to issue or revoke parole grants, whether it also gave the authority to truncate previously issued parole grants en masse is a separate question, Talwani found.

“The answer is no,” she wrote.

The ruling is a significant toward justice for hundreds of thousands of immigrants paroled into the US as well as American sponsors who welcomed them, said Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center, which represents the plaintiffs.

“Our clients — and our class members — have done everything the government asked of them, and we’re gratified to see that the court will not allow the government to fail to uphold its side of the bargain,” Tumlin said in a statement.

In addition to Justice Action Center, plaintiffs are represented by Human Rights First, and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP.

DHS is represented by the Department of Justice. The agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The case is Doe v. Noem, D. Mass., No. 1:25-cv-10495, order issued 4/10/25.