BOSTON – In another blow to the tycoon-turned-president Donald Trump, a judge in the US has stopped the incumbent administration from revoking the legal status granted to around 4,00,000 migrants.
In this regard, a federal appeals court stopped the Trump administration on Monday from ending the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
The ruling came from the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston as the court refused to overturn an earlier decision by a lower judge that blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from canceling a two-year special permit known as ‘parole’; the parole had been given to the migrants during President Joe Biden’s term and Trump wanted to revoke that.
This parole allowed around the migrants to legally live and work in the United States. The Trump administration wanted to cancel that protection, as part of its broader effort to toughen immigration rules and increase deportations.
The government claimed that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had the power to end the migrants’ status altogether and argued that the court’s decision was forcing the country to keep migrants it didn’t want.
However, a panel of three judges—all appointed by Democratic presidents— rejected the plea and said the administration had not given strong enough legal reasons to cancel the parole for all affected migrants.
The administration is now left with the option to move the Supreme Court to seek a favorable decision. The case began when immigrant rights groups filed a lawsuit against the government for trying to pause and cancel Biden-era programs that allowed people from countries like Ukraine, Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter and stay in the U.S.
On March 25, DHS announced plans to end the two-year parole though on April 25, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled that DHS had made a legal mistake by trying to cancel parole without reviewing each case individually; Talwani was appointed by Barack Obama.
Trump administration now lost the appeal before the judge which means that these migrants can keep their current legal protections for now.
