The Supreme Court has stayed a lower court ruling that blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to remove parole status for immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
The decision affects an estimated 530,000 migrants. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
“The Court has plainly botched this assessment today. It requires next to nothing from the Government with respect to irreparable harm,” Jackson wrote. “And it undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.”
“I would have denied the Government’s application because its harm-related showing is patently insufficient. The balance of the equities also weighs heavily in respondents’ favor. While it is apparent that the Government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum predecision damage, court-ordered stays exist to minimize—not maximize—harm to litigating parties,” she added.
The program, called CHNV, allows migrants to receive “parole” status for up to two years. The Trump administration moved to terminate the program in March.
“Today’s decision is a victory for the American people,” declared Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “The Biden Administration lied to America. They allowed more than half a million poorly vetted aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela and their immediate family members to enter the United States through these disastrous parole programs; granted them opportunities to compete for American jobs and undercut American workers; forced career civil servants to promote the programs even when fraud was identified; and then blamed Republicans in Congress for the chaos that ensued and the crime that followed.”
“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,” McLaughlin said.
The decision comes as the Supreme Court has also permitted the Trump administration to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelan migrants while legal proceedings on the subject continue.
