U.S. Appeals Court Blocks Trump Administration’s Move to Revoke Migrant Protections

BOSTON: A federal appeals court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s bid to revoke temporary legal status for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, marking a significant setback to the administration’s immigration crackdown.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston declined to suspend an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani that halted the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) move to terminate two-year “parole” protections granted to the migrants under President Joe Biden’s administration.

The court, composed entirely of Democratic appointees, found that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had not demonstrated a strong legal basis for the categorical termination of parole status. The panel emphasized that ending such protections required a case-by-case review, rather than a blanket decision.

Karen Tumlin of the Justice Action Centre, which represents the migrants, hailed the ruling as a “victory for the rule of law” and condemned the administration’s actions as “reckless and illegal.”

The DHS had argued that continuing the parole status would force the government to retain “hundreds of thousands of aliens in the country against its will.” However, the court’s decision keeps the Biden-era protections in place for now.

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The administration may now appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case centers on a lawsuit brought by immigrant rights advocates after the DHS announced in March it would terminate parole for about 400,000 migrants. Judge Talwani ruled in April that the move violated federal requirements by bypassing individual assessments and relying on flawed legal reasoning.