President Donald Trump was dealt a blow Thursday after a federal judge blocked the administration from revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants from Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti, after they had been granted parole by the Biden administration.
According to Fox News, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said the Department of Homeland Security had incorrectly read the law when it made the decision to end the two-year parole period.
Former President Barrack Obama appointed Talwani, who said revoking the temporary legal status would lead to around 450,000 individuals being put into a process of expedited deportation.
“What you’re prioritizing is not people coming over the border but the people who followed the rules,” Talwani said.
Biran Ward, a lawyer from the Department of Justice argued the parole programs are discretionary.
Time magazine reported Talwani has said the government had made a deal and now that has been “undercut.”
“The nub of the problem here is that the secretary, in cutting short the parole period afforded to these individuals, has to have a reasoned decision,” Talwani said. “There was a deal and now that deal has been undercut.”
The plan to revoke the parole sparked immigration advocacy groups to sue Trump, while his administration attempted to revoke temporary legal status for migrants from four countries in late March.
Under the Biden administration plan, migrants were able to fly to the U.S. if they had sponsors and were placed on parole for two years. This was shut down once Trump took office in January.
