On May 30, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court authorized the Trump administration to terminate a humanitarian parole program that had granted temporary legal status to more than 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. This decision allows the administration to proceed with deportations while legal challenges continue in lower courts.
The program, initiated under President Biden, provided two-year humanitarian parole to individuals fleeing political and economic instability in their home countries. It required applicants to undergo background checks and secure financial sponsors. The Biden administration viewed this approach as a means to manage migration through legal channels.
The Supreme Court’s unsigned order effectively lifts a lower court’s injunction that had blocked the termination of the program. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented, expressing concern over the potential harm to migrants and their families. Justice Jackson noted that the decision “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.”
The administration argues that the program impedes immigration enforcement and seeks to restore traditional case-by-case processing. Critics contend that the mass revocation of status without individualized assessments violates federal law and endangers vulnerable populations.
This ruling follows a recent Supreme Court decision permitting the termination of Temporary Protected Status for approximately 350,000 Venezuelans, further impacting migrants’ legal standing in the U.S.
The legal battle over the humanitarian parole program continues, with significant implications for immigration policy and the lives of affected individuals.
