US Supreme Court clears path for Trump to end legal status of over 500,000 migrants

The US Supreme Court on May 30 ruled in favour of President Donald Trump's administration, allowing it to move forward with ending a key immigration programme that currently protects more than 500,000 migrants from deportation.

The decision temporarily overrides a lower court's order that had blocked the administration from terminating the humanitarian parole programme, initially introduced under former President Joe Biden, Caliber.Az reports, referencing Western media.

The programme had granted temporary legal status to migrants fleeing political and economic instability in countries such as Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

Under the parole scheme — officially known as the CHNV (Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela) humanitarian parole — migrants were allowed to live and work legally in the United States for two years, based on what the government classifies as “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”

In a 5-4 decision, the court granted the Trump administration’s emergency appeal, effectively placing more than half a million migrants at risk of deportation. The administration had challenged a Massachusetts federal judge’s earlier injunction that blocked the programme’s termination.

Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, two of the Court's three liberal members, issued dissents. In her opinion, Jackson warned that the court's order would allow “the lives of half a million migrants [to] unravel all around us before the courts decide their legal claims.”

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller hailed the ruling in a statement to CNN, saying the administration “celebrated” the decision, which he claimed would allow for the deportation of over 500,000 “invaders.” “The Supreme Court justly stepped in,” he added.

The CHNV parole programme had been a cornerstone of Biden’s approach to addressing humanitarian migration. However, Trump made the termination a priority on his first day in office, signing an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to dismantle all such parole mechanisms. In March, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem formally announced the end of the programme.

Immigrants currently protected under the CHNV programme, along with several advocacy groups, had sued the administration, arguing that returning them to their home countries could expose them to severe risks, including persecution, violence, and even death.

The Supreme Court’s ruling follows a separate decision earlier this month that allowed the Trump administration to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for around 350,000 Venezuelans. TPS is a different programme that also provides temporary legal status to migrants from countries experiencing armed conflict or natural disasters.

Humanitarian parole has long been used to offer refuge to people fleeing turmoil, including Cubans escaping the revolution in the 1960s. Most recently, the Biden administration introduced a similar initiative in 2022 to support Ukrainians displaced by Russia’s invasion.

By Tamilla Hasanova