Supreme Court Ruling Places 530,000 Migrants in Jeopardy of Deportation

In a controversial decision, the Supreme Court ruled that over 530,000 migrants are at risk of deportation as the Trump administration moves to cancel a humanitarian parole program.

In a significant decision, the US Supreme Court authorized the Trump administration to revoke the legal status for more than 530,000 migrants currently residing in the United States under a humanitarian parole programme. This ruling, issued on Friday, suspended a prior federal injunction that had blocked the administration from terminating the "parole" initiative created by President Biden. The program specifically aided migrants fleeing dire economic and political situations from nations such as Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, exposing them now to the prospect of deportation.

The decision witnessed dissent from Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, bringing to light concerns for the welfare of migrants involved. The humanitarian parole initiative was designed to grant temporary status, which allows migrants to work and live in the US based on “urgent humanitarian needs or significant public benefit,” according to government sources.

The Trump administration's emergency appeal followed a federal judge's ruling in Massachusetts that had initially blocked the termination of the parole program, referred to formally as CHNV humanitarian parole. Following the Supreme Court's decision, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller celebrated the ruling, referring to migrants as “invaders” and expressing satisfaction with the opportunity to deport individuals he claims do not belong in the country.

Justice Jackson articulated strong concerns during her dissent, indicating that the high court's order would destabilize the lives of half a million migrants while the validity of their claims remained unresolved in lower courts. She pointedly noted that Trump had, on his first day in office, ordered the Department of Homeland Security to dismantle these essential humanitarian programs.

In March, the former administration reaffirmed this intention when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the termination of CHNV humanitarian parole. In response to this decision, numerous immigrant rights organizations and affected migrants launched lawsuits, contending that deportation could lead them to "serious risks of danger, persecution and even death" upon return to their home countries.

This ruling follows an earlier Supreme Court judgment allowing the administration to rescind Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for approximately 350,000 Venezuelan nationals currently residing and working in the US. Such humanitarian parole programmes have a rich history in the US, enabling individuals fleeing war or chaotic conditions to seek refuge, with precedents dating back to the 1960s for Cuban migrants escaping the revolution. The Biden administration, paralleling this effort, established a fresh parole initiative in 2022 for Ukrainian individuals fleeing the ongoing conflict with Russia.