The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday sided with President Donald Trump’s administration in allowing the revocation of temporary legal status for over half a million migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. The decision, issued without explanation in an emergency order, permits the administration to proceed with ending the immigration “parole” program implemented under President Joe Biden.
The court’s move overturns a previous ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, who had blocked the administration from terminating the program, citing that parole decisions must be made on a case-by-case basis under federal law. Talwani’s ruling had provided temporary relief to more than 530,000 migrants facing the risk of deportation.
Two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the Supreme Court’s decision. Justice Jackson warned that the court’s action could have devastating consequences, “upending the lives and livelihoods” of hundreds of thousands while their legal claims remain unresolved.
Immigration parole allows individuals to remain in the U.S. temporarily for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.” The Biden administration had expanded its use of parole to manage surging numbers of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, offering two-year stays to those passing security checks and with U.S. sponsors. The program aimed to reduce illegal border crossings by providing legal pathways to entry.
Upon returning to office in January, Trump quickly moved to dismantle these policies, directing the Department of Homeland Security to terminate the parole grants. The administration argued that doing so would streamline enforcement and enable the expedited removal of migrants.
The case marks another example of the Trump administration using emergency appeals to reverse lower court decisions blocking key immigration initiatives. A similar Supreme Court ruling in May allowed Trump to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for around 350,000 Venezuelans.
The plaintiffs migrants and their U.S. sponsors warn that ending parole will expose individuals to immediate deportation to unstable regimes where they face persecution, violence, or death. They also contend that the suspension of asylum processing leaves them without any viable legal recourse.
The case continues to work its way through the lower courts, but Friday’s ruling deals a severe blow to Biden-era humanitarian immigration programs.
