A federal judge stopped the Trump administration on Monday from rescinding deportation protections and work permits for more than a half-million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who were granted entrance into the United States under a humanitarian parole program during the Biden presidency.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled, after a hearing last week, that the paroled migrants can stay in the United States as they pursue immigration benefits. In effect, her ruling will prevent the Department of Homeland Security’s secretary, Kristi Noem, from revoking their parole status as part of an administration plan to end the humanitarian program on April 24.

“While [Trump administration officials] are correct that the Secretary’s discretion in this area is broad, their conclusion that the Secretary’s actions are wholly shielded from judicial review is incorrect,” Talwani wrote in in a 41-page order filed in Boston federal court.

Talwani said that while her role in reviewing the agency’s revocation order is “limited,” the judge said she has the authority to stay the secretary’s “termination” of parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans because “it revokes, without case-by-case review, previously granted parole and work authorizations for individuals currently in the United States.”

For now, the judge’s ruling signals a major victory for the paroled immigrants from the four countries, who sued the Trump administration in the hope of remaining in the United States for a two-year period. Talwani, in a separate order on Monday, also certified the group as a class.

Many of them have been living and working in South Florida after being sponsored by relatives to come to the United States to apply for asylum or other protections instead of trying to get in through the U.S.-Mexico border, where a migrant crisis erupted during the Biden administration’s watch.

Talwani said that if she did not issue her stay putting the Homeland Security secretary’s termination order on hold, the consequences would be dire for the paroled immigrants.

“The immediate impact of the shortening of their grant of parole is to cause their lawful status in the United States to lapse early — in less than two weeks,” the judge wrote. “If their parole status is allowed to lapse, [the paroled immigrants] will be faced with two unfavorable options: continue following the law and leave the country on their own, or await removal proceedings.

“If [they] leave the country on their own, they will face dangers in their native countries,” she added.

Last month, President Donald Trump sought to halt the humanitarian parole program as part of his crackdown on ending legal pathways for immigrants to come and stay in the United States under the administration of his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Secretary Noem’s action — published on March 25 as a notice in the Federal Register and scheduled to take effect 30 days later — was based on a flawed interpretation of immigration law, said Talwani, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. At a hearing in Boston federal court last week, Talwani said the administration’s goal was to place the paroled migrants on a fast-track of deportation later this month, but authorities relied on a wrong interpretation of the process.

She said Homeland Security viewed the migrants as individuals who illegally crossed the U.S. border and could be removed on an expedited basis. She said they should instead be viewed as migrants who were granted permission to enter the United States under a grant of parole.

“What you’re prioritizing is not people coming over the border but the people who followed the rules,” Talwani said during the hearing.

As of December 2024, the last full month Biden was in office, a total of 531,690 people had come through the parole program, known as CHNV for the nationalities of the migrants involved. That includes 110,240 Cubans, 211,040 Haitians, 93,070 Nicaraguans, and 117,330 Venezuelans who flew into U.S. airports.

The CHNV group, represented by the Justice Action Center, come from the region’s most troubled countries. In Cuba, the island remains under a repressive dictatorship and Cubans are experiencing repeated blackouts and shortages of food and medicine. In Haiti, there hasn’t been a general election in nearly a decade; more than a million have been displaced by armed gang violence and the country’s volatile capital is on the verge of collapse. In Venezuela and Nicaragua, repressive regimes have also prompted a humanitarian crisis that has forced millions to flee.

Biden created the parole program so people from the four countries would have a new legal avenue to come to the U.S for two years, in an attempt to reduce irregular migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. People could use the program to come to the U.S. as long as they had a financial sponsor here, could arrange for their airfare, and passed health and background checks. About 30,000 people a month were coming to the U.S. under the program since it began in January 2023.

But the Trump administration said the program does not align with the president’s foreign policy and did not have much impact on curbing the flow of migrants at the border. Rather, officials argue, the program added to the immigration backlogs because 75,000 of the people who came on the parole program have applied for asylum. The program also created pressures at airports — Florida received 80% of the arriving migrants, the administration said.

“These programs do not serve a significant public benefit, are not necessary to reduce levels of illegal immigration, did not sufficiently mitigate the domestic effects of illegal immigration, are not serving their intended purposes, and are inconsistent with the Administration’s foreign policy goals,” the Federal Register notice says.

“The need to break the ‘vicious cycle’ of unlawful immigration supports this [Homeland Security] action to terminate the CHNV parole programs in favor of new presidential directives that address the demand for enhanced border security,” the notice added.

The end of the parole program is part of Trump’s crackdown on legal immigration paths that allow people to temporarily come to the U.S. Republicans also criticized the parole program as an overreach and abuse of executive presidential power. But past Democratic and Republican presidents have used their parole authorities to allow people from countries in turmoil to come to the United States, including Soviet and Vietnamese citizens.

Homeland Security, which could appeal the Boston judge’s ruling, intends to prioritize for deportation those who have not properly filed a request for an immigration benefit to remain lawfully in the U.S. This includes applying for adjustment of status, asylum or Temporary Protected Status.

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.