Trump Administration Orders 500,000 Immigrants to Leave US (2)

Immigrants admitted to the US from a Biden-era parole program for Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela have begun receiving notices of termination urging them to depart the US.

Participants in the “CHNV” parole program were also told that their employment authorization is revoked effective immediately in email messages from the Department of Homeland Security, the agency said Thursday.

The notices follow a US Supreme Court decision last month allowing DHS to move forward with revocation of parole benefits for half a million immigrants after a lower court preserved the protections. A legal challenge to the Trump administration’s dismantling of parole programs including the CHNV process is still ongoing.

Revoking parole benefits is part of a larger effort by the administration to terminate temporary immigration protections that expanded in recent years. It has also terminated Temporary Protected Status designations that shielded immigrants from Venezuela, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Cameroon from deportation.

The revocation notices announcement came the same day President Donald Trump said he would issue an order to protect farmworkers from deportation in response to demands from agricultural producers.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that the Biden administration hadn’t properly vetted immigrants admitted through the program, and that paroled immigrants had undercut American workers.

“Ending the CHNV parole programs, as well as the paroles of those who exploited it, will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First,” she said in a statement.

CHNV Program

The Biden administration launched the CHNV program in 2023 to reduce irregular migration to the US-Mexico border and give people an orderly way to flee humanitarian crises in the four countries.

Applications far exceeded the 30,000 slots available each month, and US businesses hired the parolees in hard-to-fill jobs across the country. Industries including construction and health care are likely to face new worker shortages after the parolees’ work permits are canceled.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, said the immigrants receiving termination notices this week had played by the rules and already passed security screenings and secured legal work authorization.

“Instead of rewarding responsible migration through orderly legal pathways, this action punishes those who jumped through every hoop asked of them,” she said in a statement.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services just this week lifted a freeze on pending benefits requests—like asylum claims and visa applications—for parolees in response to a court order. Immigrants are paroled temporarily into the US with the expectation that they seek a longer-term legal status in the US.

But processing of benefits was frozen in February, cutting off other legal immigration options weeks before the Trump administration announced the termination of parole benefits.

The revocation of protections is a devastating blow to immigrants and US sponsors who welcomed them into their homes and communities, said Anwen Hughes, legal director of Human Rights First, which represents plaintiffs suing to preserve parole programs.

“There is no question that the Trump administration is needlessly and flagrantly flouting U.S. law, and we will continue to fight in the courts to ensure justice for our communities,” she said in a statement.