The Trump administration is revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who were paroled into the United States during the Biden administration under a humanitarian program aimed at curbing irregular migration to the U.S. from the four nations.

The decision means that hundreds of thousands of people will suddenly be vulnerable to expedited removal from the U.S. if they do not have any other legal status, such as an application for asylum or Temporary Protected Status. Both are protections from deportations; TPS is a federal designation given to certain countries in turmoil. It allows the nationals of those countries in the U.S. to legally remain here temporarily while being eligible to work.

A notice to be published Tuesday in the Federal Register about what the program, known as CHNV for the initials of the nationalities involved, says “parolees without a lawful basis to remain in the United States following this termination of the CHNV parole programs must depart the United States before their parole termination date.”

The decision is almost certain to be challenged in the courts by immigration attorneys who have been arguing that individuals paroled into the U.S. under humanitarian parole followed all of the rules and should not be punished by having their ability to legally work and live in the U.S. suddenly stripped from them.

“We are talking about almost 500,000 people who entered under this program, half a million people, and really all of these people are living in the United States,” said Elizabeth Amaran, a Miami-based immigration lawyer. “They have been here for less than two years, that’s true. But come on, they are people who came with the intention of staying legally and have done absolutely nothing wrong, because they entered under a program that was legal at the time it was created.”

‘Disheartening’

Amaran said she she finds the administration’s decision to be “extreme” and dangerous as well as their interpretation that the program was not legal when issued by President Biden.

“Of course, all of this is going to be challenged legally. But while this is being decided in court, immigration has the power to take and deport anyone of them before the court decides,” she said.

Under U.S. law, when someone has their immigration status revoked, it means that the person’s admission into the country was not legal. “If this is not a legal admission, all these people are exposed to expedited removal,” said Amaran. “Expedited removal means that they deport you without ever seeing a judge.”

Immigration advocates said they were shocked and saddened by the decision. Others who had advocated for the program’s expansion to the four groups said they weren’t surprised, given recent decisions the Trump administration has taken to remove immigrant protections. Seeing the vulnerability of the measure, put in place by executive order, advocates had pushed the Biden administration to institute stronger guardrails before leaving office this month to protect beneficiaries. That, however, did not happen.

“It’s disheartening to learn that thousands of hard-working people could abruptly lose their parole status, which has allowed them to work and make significant contribution to our society,” said Maureen Porras, an immigration attorney of Nicaraguan origin and vice mayor of the city of Doral, which has the largest population of Venezuelans in the U.S.

Adelys Ferro, executive director of Venezuelan American Caucus, an organization dedicated to informed Venezuelan-American citizens, said she was shocked at the news.

“Trump’s decision reveals a harsh truth: It’s not about deporting criminal or undocumented migrants, but stripping away the legal status of those who entered the U.S. lawfully, leaving them vulnerable to deportation without protection,” Ferro said.

She added that “the cruelty” of the Trump administration’s move underscores that its real goal has never been to address illegal immigration, but to undermine the stability of legal migrants.

“This decision targets all migrants, but it especially harms Latin American communities, with Venezuelans being hit the hardest,” she said. “The Venezuelan community deserves better than this. It’s essential for those with only parole and no other immigration status to understand the threat they face and seek guidance from immigration attorneys to secure their future.”

Under the Biden parole processes, launched in January 2023, more than 531,000 individuals legally entered the United States from the four countries. To qualify, individuals needed to have a financial sponsor in the U.S., pass health and background checks and come to the U.S. through an airport. Upon arriving, individuals were eligible to apply for work permits during the program’s two year duration.

In October, after successfully beating back a court challenge by Republicans, the Department of Homeland Security announced that existing beneficiaries of the humanitarian parole would not be able to renew the benefit after two years.

In response, immigration advocates and lawyers advised individuals that if they want to remain in the U.S., they need to find a way to legally adjust their status by either applying for asylum or Temporary Protected Status.

President Donald Trump’s latest move against immigration benefits under Biden comes weeks after his administration rolled back deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who had been granted TPS and had the benefit extended by Biden to offer them additional legal protections.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, however, argued that her predecessor had no right to offer the extension.

Meanwhile, Trump and Republican officials had long sharply criticized the humanitarian parole program, calling it an overreach of executive authority and saying that Biden had abused his presidential powers. Over a dozen Republican-led states sued the Biden administration in court to declare the program illegal, but a federal judge dismissed the case.

Modeled after a similar program for nationals of Ukraine, who were fleeing the war with Russia, the Biden-era humanitarian program was first launched for Venezuelans in October 2022. It was then extended to nationals of Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua — countries that like Venezuela are undergoing worsening humanitarian crises prompted by bad governance. However, GOP officials have not challenged the legality of the Ukraine program.

The Biden administration launched the program as a way to increase legal pathways while reducing irregular migration. With a cap of 30,000 individuals a month, the program quickly drew applicants who had to come to the U.S. through an airport. Also, any migrant caught trying to enter the U.S. illegally was banned from benefiting from the program.

In October, the Biden administration announced that existing beneficiaries of the parole program would not be able to renew their parole after two years, meaning that they would need to find another way to stay in the country or leave.

Trump ended the program when he shut down an online platform migrants used to get their travel authorization. By then more than 213,000 Haitians had already lawfully been allowed in, while more than 120,700 Venezuelans also entered, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Cuban migrants numbered 110,900 and Nicaraguans more than 93,000 before the program was shut down. The biggest beneficiaries of the program were Cubans, who after a year and a day of being in the U.S. are eligible under a separate U.S. law — the decades-old Cuban Adjustment Act — to apply for legal permanent residency.

U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Miami wrote a letter to acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman urging the Trump administration to protect beneficiaries of the program with pending asylum or Cuban Adjustment act cases to be protected.

“Although President Biden originally created this new program on dubious legal grounds and brought individuals here without a plan for their future, they were still enrolled under programs offered to them. Therefore, I believe they should have the ability to see their applications out to rectify their legal status,” she said.

Most affected by the decision are the newly arrived Nicaraguans, whose nation was last granted Temporary Protected Status designation at the turn of the 21st Century after Hurricane Mitch and has not received a new designation like Haiti and Venezuela, which would have made its nationals eligible for the temporary protection. For years, South Florida advocates have pushed for an expansion of the status, concerned that many Nicaraguans in the U.S. would be left with no other forms of relief from deportation if the parole program was revoked.

Rivly Breus, founder of the Erzule Paul Foundation in Miami, who sponsored nearly three dozen Haitan migrants under the program, teared up when she heard the news. She didn’t know how she would deliver the news, or if she would.

“I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news,” she said. “This is something that can break someone, and I don’t want to be the person that’s breaking someone’s spirit. I have literal tears in my eyes right now just thinking about how much commotion this is going to cause.”

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