AILA ED: SCOTUS Clears Way for Trump Administration to Terminate Lawful Status of Half a Million Residents Despite Ongoing Litigation
| CONTACTS: | |
|---|---|
| George Tzamaras 202-507-7649 gtzamaras@aila.org |
Belle Woods 202-507-7675 bwoods@aila.org |
Washington, DC – Today, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) cleared the way for the Trump Administration to move forward with plans to dismantle the parole program for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV). The decision marks a devasting setback for a legal pathway that had proven to be both humane and effective border control policy. Ben Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), responded to the decision:
“Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said it best in her dissent: the Court ‘botched this.’
“Allowing the Trump Administration to dismantle this program and begin the removal of 500,000 people will upend lives and create chaos and instability in the communities where they live. Forcing people to return to unstable and violent places is unconscionable when a legal alternative is in place. The conditions in Haiti, and the horrors of living under a dictatorship, like those in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, are why the parole program was created. None of those factors have changed.
“Nowhere in the request for the stay did the Administration detail any national security or foreign policy related concern that would arise from leaving the grants of parole in place while litigation proceeds. Given that DHS still has the ability to terminate parole on a case-by-case basis, there is absolutely no need for this looming and avoidable harm to take effect before courts make a final decision on the merits of the program.
“As Justice Brown Jackson warns, the impact will be severe. We will all be forced to watch ‘the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.’
“SCOTUS got this wrong—and the human cost will be staggering.”