Trump revokes legal status for 530,000 immigrants in the US
The immigration ban, which was reinstated on April 24, makes way for a two-year “parole” granted to the immigrants under former president Joe Biden, which allowed them to enter the country via air if they had US sponsors.
A group of Americans seeking to reinstate the programs for the four nationalities issuing the Trump administration for terminating humanitarian parole.
As his administration struggled with high levels of undocumented immigration from those nations, Biden started the parole entry program for Venezuelans in 2022 and expanded it to Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans in 2023. The four nations’ diplomatic and political ties to the United States have been strained.
Biden also attempted to restrict illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border with the new legal pathways.
After taking office, Trump, who campaigned against a strict anti-immigration policy, immediately increased enforcement, including a campaign pledge to deport record numbers of people without official documentation.
He argued in an executive order on January 20 that the legal entry and parole programs he instituted under his Democratic predecessor went beyond the bounds of federal law.
Many immigrants who choose to remain in the US may be subject to deportation as a result of his administration’s decision to remove half a million immigrants from the legal system.
How many people who were on parole enter the country today have different legal statuses or protections?
The US Department of Homeland Security stated in a notice that the removal of the parole status would facilitate the entry of these immigrants into a “expedited removal” process with a date set to be formally published in the Federal Register on Monday.
The Trump administration “broke a commitment the federal government made to the hundreds of thousands” of immigrants and their sponsors in the United States, according to Karen Tumlin, director of the immigrant rights organization Justice Action Center.
She told the AFP news agency in a statement that “urgently revoke the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans” is going to cause needless chaos and heartache for families and communities all over the nation.
The “vast majority” of the half a million immigrants who entered the US as a result of the latest order, according to immigration lawyer Nicolette Glazer in California. She continued, “The chaos will be unreal,” on X.
Trump said on March 6 that he would also decide whether or not to remove the 240 000 Ukrainians who had fled the US after the Russian-led war from his country would receive parole.
Certain immigrants in the US can be expedited for two years or less under a Trump-era policy that was implemented in January.
Source: Aljazeera
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