Judge halts Trump’s move to strip legal status from 500,000 migrants

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A federal judge has dealt a major blow to former President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration agenda, halting the administration’s effort to strip legal status from over half a million migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean.

In a ruling issued Monday in Boston, District Judge Indira Talwani blocked the government’s attempt to terminate a humanitarian parole program that has granted temporary legal entry to hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti.

“The court grants emergency relief staying the Termination of Parole Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans,” Talwani wrote in her decision.

The Biden-era parole program, launched in October 2022, allowed up to 30,000 migrants per month from the four countries to enter the U.S. for a two-year period. The initiative aimed to offer refuge to individuals fleeing dire conditions, including political persecution and humanitarian crises, in nations with dismal human rights records.

In March, the Trump administration announced plans to revoke that status, targeting some 532,000 migrants who had entered the United States legally through the parole process. The move was set to take effect on April 24, just 30 days after the Department of Homeland Security published the order in the Federal Register.

But Talwani concluded that the administration had misinterpreted immigration law. She emphasized that expedited removal procedures apply only to non-citizens who enter the country unlawfully, not to those who arrive under authorized programs like parole.

The decision marks another judicial roadblock for Trump’s broader promise to deport “millions” of undocumented immigrants should he return to the White House. His campaign has leaned heavily on immigration crackdowns, including dramatic enforcement actions such as invoking wartime powers to deport alleged gang members from Venezuela to El Salvador, where they are now imprisoned.

The ruling temporarily preserves legal protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants who now anxiously await the next steps in a legal battle with sweeping implications.