Decision affects over 500,000 Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants granted temporary legal status under Biden administration
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday handed President Donald Trump a major victory in his immigration crackdown, allowing his administration to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua while legal challenges play out in lower courts.
In an unsigned order with no reasoning provided, the court put on hold a lower court ruling that had blocked the Trump administration from ending the immigration “parole” granted to 532,000 migrants under the Biden administration’s humanitarian programs.
Two of the court’s three liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, publicly dissented from the decision.
The Parole Programs Under Threat
The programs at issue allowed migrants from the four countries to enter the United States legally and receive two-year work permits if they:
- Passed security background checks
- Had a U.S.-based financial sponsor
- Entered the country by air rather than crossing the border illegally
The Biden administration launched the programs starting in 2022 as part of efforts to reduce illegal border crossings and provide orderly pathways for migration from countries experiencing severe political and economic crises.
On his first day back in office on January 20, 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the termination of what he called Biden’s “mass-parole programs.” The Department of Homeland Security subsequently moved in March to revoke the parole status, giving beneficiaries just 30 days to leave the country or face arrest and deportation.
The administration argued that revoking parole status would make it easier to place these migrants in “expedited removal” – a fast-track deportation process that provides fewer legal protections.
Legal Battle and Lower Court Rulings
A group of migrants and their American sponsors challenged the termination, arguing it violated federal law requiring case-by-case review of parole decisions rather than blanket revocations.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston sided with the plaintiffs in April, finding that the law governing parole “did not allow for the program’s blanket termination.” She issued an order blocking the Trump administration’s move.
The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Talwani’s decision in May, with a three-judge panel saying the administration had not made a “strong showing” that its categorical termination of parole was likely to be legally sustained.
Supreme Court Intervention
Facing these setbacks, the Trump administration took the case to the Supreme Court on an emergency basis. In their filing, Justice Department lawyers argued that the lower court’s order had:
- Upended “critical immigration policies that are carefully calibrated to deter illegal entry
- Effectively undone “democratically approved policies that featured heavily in the November election”
- Forced the government to “retain hundreds of thousands of aliens in the country against its will
Solicitor General John Sauer called it “one of the administration’s most consequential immigration policy decisions.
Impact on Affected Migrants
The Supreme Court’s decision means that while the legal battle continues in lower courts, the Trump administration can proceed with revoking parole status, potentially exposing hundreds of thousands to deportation proceedings.
Karen Tumlin, director of the immigrant rights group Justice Action Center, which represented the plaintiffs, criticized the administration as “hellbent on punishing nearly half a million people who did everything the government asked of them.
The court notably left open the possibility of future challenges if the administration tries to cancel work permits or other documents that were issued to expire in October 2026, the original end date of the parole period.
Broader Immigration Crackdown
Friday’s decision represents the latest victory for Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda. The Supreme Court has now sided with the administration in several emergency requests related to immigration policy, including:
- On May 19, allowing Trump to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 350,000 Venezuelans
- Maintaining various other restrictions on asylum and refugee programs
However, the court has also imposed some limits, maintaining a block on Trump’s attempt to use an 1798 wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members without adequate legal process.
Political and Humanitarian Implications
The decision affects migrants who fled severe political persecution, economic collapse, and violence in their home countries. Many have established lives in the United States, securing employment and contributing to communities over the past two to three years.
Immigration advocates warn the ruling could lead to family separations and force people back to dangerous conditions in countries experiencing ongoing crises.
The Trump administration maintains these programs encouraged illegal immigration and must be terminated to restore “the rule of law to our immigration system,” according to Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
As legal challenges continue in lower courts, the immediate future remains uncertain for over half a million migrants who entered the country legally but now face the prospect of deportation under the Trump administration’s hardline policies.
Image credit: Panorama of United States Supreme Court Building at Dusk by Joe Ravi, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
