Boston’s U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani earlier ruled the government’s move, saying the broad termination violated federal laws that ruled parole for immigrants. Under U.S. law, parole allows individuals to stay in and work in the country for “emergency humanitarian reasons or a large amount of public interest.”
Justice Department lawyers argued in a Supreme Court application that Talwani’s ruling undermined “critical immigration policies carefully calibrated to block illegal entry” and reversed “policy that was “a large number of democratically approved policies in the November election” that brought Donald Trump back to office. The administration insists that the end of parole program is part of Trump’s broader immigration strategy and asserts that judges have gone beyond by interfering in administrative controls on immigration and foreign policy.
Trump issued an executive order on January 20, his first day in office, calling for an end to the parole program. The Department of Homeland Security then terminated the program in March and cut two-year parole grants that had been awarded to about 400,000 people. In total, approximately 530,000 immigrants were granted parole under the Biden administration, which opened the program in 2022 to Venezuelans, which later expanded it to include Cubans, Haitians and Nicaragua.
The government believes that eliminating parole protection will allow for faster deportation by expediting the demolition process. The plaintiff, including immigration granted parole and its sponsors, sued the government and asserted that the massive termination violated federal law, which requires a case-by-case decision.
Karen Tumlin, director of the Judicial Action Center and attorney representing the plaintiff, criticized the government’s actions. “The Trump administration has given everything the government requires to punish nearly 500,000 people,” she said. “Everyone sponsors, beneficiaries, communities and the economy benefit from humanitarian parole.”
The Supreme Court has asked the plaintiff to respond to the government’s request by May 15. The case adds to the Trump administration’s growing list of emergency applications, aiming to reverse court rulings that hinder various policy measures, many of which are intended to focus on immigration.
