U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani with the District of Massachusetts temporarily blocked the Trump Administration from categorically revoking parole status allowing an estimated 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) to remain and work in the United States for up to two years. Talwani said the Trump Administration must do a case-by-case review to revoke the status of migrants who entered the country under the terms of the so-called CHNV parole programs.
In her order, the judge recognized the law gives the executive branch authority to make decisions on parole for migrants in the U.S., but she wrote “there is separate question” as to whether Congress has granted the Department of Homeland Security the authority—after parole has been granted and individuals have entered the country on lawful basis—to “categorically truncate these grants of parole en masse and without individual review.” Talwani concluded “The answer is no.”