The United States federal appeals court has dealt a setback to President Donald Trump’s renewed efforts to revoke temporary legal status for hundreds of thousands of migrants, rejecting a push to resume mass deportations as part of his broader immigration crackdown.
The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday declined to pause a prior ruling that barred the Department of Homeland Security from abruptly ending a two-year humanitarian parole program introduced during President Joe Biden’s tenure.
The decision ensures that migrants, including Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, continue to benefit from protections that allow them to stay and work in the U.S.
Trump-era officials, backing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, had argued that she held the authority to terminate parole for all recipients at once.
They contended the court’s intervention was unjustly compelling the federal government to “retain hundreds of thousands of aliens in the country against its will,” as reported by Reuters.
But the three-judge panel, each appointed by Democratic presidents, rejected that argument, stating that Noem “has not at this point made a ‘strong showing’ that her categorical termination of plaintiffs’ parole is likely to be sustained on appeal.”
Karen Tumlin, a representative of the Justice Action Center, which filed the lawsuit challenging the administration’s move, lauded the ruling and criticized the government’s actions as “reckless and illegal.”
The legal clash stems from a lawsuit filed by immigrant advocacy groups against the Biden-era parole initiative, which had opened doors for migrants from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and parts of Latin America to enter the U.S. on humanitarian grounds.
Despite the pending legal proceedings, DHS announced in the Federal Register on March 25 its intent to rescind parole for roughly 400,000 individuals, triggering immediate court challenges.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who initially blocked the policy, later ruled on April 25 that the DHS had incorrectly interpreted the law by trying to cancel parole on a blanket basis, rather than assessing each case individually.
She noted that this misapplication was rooted in a legal error and overstepped the agency’s authority to remove individuals under established legal procedures.
As of now, the Department of Homeland Security has not issued a statement in response to the appellate court’s decision.
