A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration must lift its suspension on certain immigration applications, stating that allowing hundreds of thousands of immigrants to lose their legal status is not in the public interest.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s decision provides relief to many immigrants from Afghanistan, Latin America, Ukraine, and other regions whose legal ability to live and work in the U.S. was jeopardized by Trump-era policies.
Talwani sided with immigration advocates who challenged the suspension, describing the government’s actions as arbitrary and inconsistent, violating federal administrative law.
In her order, Talwani emphasized that forcing hundreds of thousands of individuals to remain in the country unlawfully, unable to legally work or support their families, “is not in the public interest.”
Central to the ruling is the immigration mechanism known as “parole,” which allows the federal government to admit foreigners temporarily on humanitarian or public interest grounds. Officials appointed during the Trump administration sought to restrict parole usage, accusing the Biden administration of its widespread abuse.
The judge instructed the government to end a quiet February suspension that halted processing immigration benefits for migrants admitted under several Biden-era parole programs.
This suspension mainly affected roughly 240,000 Ukrainians admitted via the “Uniting for Ukraine” sponsorship program, created after Russia’s 2022 invasion. Additionally, about 530,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants benefiting from a separate Biden-era parole policy were impacted. That policy barred parolees from pursuing other legal statuses such as asylum, temporary protected status, or permanent residency.
Talwani’s order also overturned a January ban preventing officials from considering parole extension requests from Afghan, Ukrainian, and other migrants admitted through parole programs initiated under Biden.
Furthermore, her ruling prohibits the Trump administration from halting processing of a longstanding parole program providing temporary legal relief to immigrant relatives of active-duty and veteran U.S. military personnel—a program the administration claimed was unaffected by parole restrictions.
The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversee parole programs, did not immediately comment.
This marks Judge Talwani’s second ruling against Trump-era efforts to limit parole programs. In April, she blocked a plan to terminate legal status and deport hundreds of thousands of parolees from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The Trump administration cited fraud and vetting concerns as justification.
The U.S. Department of Justice has petitioned the Supreme Court to stay Talwani’s rulings, arguing that the courts improperly interfered with executive immigration policy.
In a May 8 filing, the Justice Department wrote that the order “prevents the Executive Branch from exercising discretion over a key aspect of national immigration and foreign policy and impedes Congress’s clear delegation of authority to the Secretary, not the courts.”
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