DHS Sued Over Benefit Freeze for Ukrainians, Immigrant Parolees

Immigrants admitted to the US through Biden-era humanitarian parole programs are suing the Trump administration over the dismantling of those programs and a decision to block them from seeking alternate legal status in the country.

The Department of Homeland Security suspended entry earlier this year through the Uniting for Ukraine program as well as a parole pathway for Afghans fleeing the Taliban and migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

The agency later put an indefinite hold on new benefits like green cards for immigrants admitted through parole programs while it conducted new vetting for fraud and national security concerns.

The termination of those parole programs and suspension of other benefits like green cards and employment-based visas violated the Administrative Procedure Act and due process, the plaintiffs argued in a class action filed Friday in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Their lawsuit asks for adjudication to be restored for parole grants and renewal applications. And it asks for the court to set aside DHS memos suspending the parole programs and adjudication of new benefits.

Plaintiffs in the suit include a Ukrainian immigrant currently employed as an engineer at a tech startup in Brooklyn, N.Y., whose employer planned to sponsor her for an H-1B specialty occupation visa. The benefits freeze for parole programs means that H-1B visa and applications she and her husband have filed for Temporary Protected Status are currently blocked.

If her parole grant expires or is canceled by the Trump administration before she secures another status, she would face removal from the US, the complaint said.

Also among the plaintiffs are several US citizens who sponsored immigrants through the parole programs, including Kyle Varner, a physician in Spokane, Wash.

“Rescinding these humanitarian parole processes will be enormously detrimental to local economies and increase critical labor shortages, particularly in communities like mine that have welcomed beneficiaries,” Varner said in a statement.

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

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case is Doe v. Noem, D. Mass., No. 1:25-cv-10495, complaint filed 2/28/25.