In a significant ruling on Monday, a federal judge effectively halted former President Trump’s sweeping attempt to terminate the Biden-era parole program, which has facilitated the entry of hundreds of thousands of migrants into the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of President Obama based in Boston, asserted that Trump’s decision to dismantle the parole initiative was rooted in a misinterpretation of the law.
BREAKING: Federal judge in Boston halts Trump administration’s mass cancellation of CHNV (Cuba/Haiti/Nicaragua/Venezuela) parole. Indira Talwani (Obama) says it was premised on legal error & lacked required individualized assessment. Doc: https://t.co/mO9LOtD4q3
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) April 15, 2025
Just last week, Judge Talwani intervened to protect the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrived in the U.S. under President Biden’s parole program. The judge emphasized that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had not applied the law correctly and affirmed that these migrants are entitled to remain in the country.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) had contended that such parole programs are discretionary, leaving it to the government to determine when to discontinue them. However, the stakes were high, as reports indicated that Trump aimed to revoke the status of approximately 532,000 migrants residing in the U.S. who had entered through Biden’s program.
Under Biden’s CHNV program, over half a million migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela were granted entry. Data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed that more than a million individuals have entered the U.S. via what the Biden administration categorized as “legal” pathways. This figure does not account for the millions who have crossed the border illegally during Biden’s tenure.
Notably, it has been reported that a staggering 81% of Haitian migrants included in Biden’s parole program—362,000 out of 448,000—were relocated to Republican-leaning states. This raises questions about the political implications of such demographic shifts.
Earlier this year, one of the Haitian migrants who arrived through the program was charged with triple murder, including the deaths of two children, underscoring the complexities and potential risks associated with immigration policies.
In response to the ruling, President Trump had previously warned migrants that failure to self-deport would lead to their arrest, a statement that reflects the contentious atmosphere surrounding immigration reform in the U.S.
