US judge blocks Trump from suspending Biden-era migrant 'parole' programmes
A US federal judge on Wednesday ordered President Donald Trump's administration to resume processing applications from migrants seeking work permits or more lasting immigration status who are living in the country temporarily under 'parole' programmes.
The ruling by district judge Indira Talwani in Boston will provide relief to thousands of migrants from Afghanistan, Latin America and Ukraine who were granted a two-year 'parole' to live in the country under programmes established by Democratic former President Joe Biden's administration.
The same judge had previously blocked the Trump administration from revoking the parole status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. The administration has asked the US Supreme Court to pause her decision.
Talwani, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, rejected the Trump administration's claim that suspending the parole programmes was within its broad discretion to direct immigration policy.
Federal law still requires agencies under the US department of homeland security to follow a lengthy process for granting or denying parole and other immigration relief, she wrote in siding with migrants pursuing a class-action lawsuit.
'We are pleased that the court has again rightly recognised the harm the government's arbitrary decision-making has inflicted on innocent people,' Anwen Hughes, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at Human Rights First, said in a statement.
The homeland security department did not respond to requests for comment.
The ruling came on the same day as a US trade court decision to block Trump's tariffs from going into effect, delivering simultaneous blows to two of the president's core agendas around trade and immigration.
The decision came in a lawsuit challenging a pause on the processing of applications from Ukrainian, Afghan, Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants either seeking to be granted entry through the parole process or who have already been granted that status and are seeking to stay.
Talwani's decision focused on policies adopted after Trump on his first day back in office on January 20 signed an executive order directing it to end the Biden-era parole programme.
In a memo that day, acting homeland security secretary Benjamine Huffman directed agencies under his purview to pause, modify or terminate any categorical parole programmes, which he asserted were not authorised by law as parole could only be granted on a case-by-case basis.
DHS officials subsequently stopped processing new parole applications and in mid-February barred staff from considering requests from migrants from Ukraine and Latin America who had already been granted parole to pursue other forms of immigration status, such as asylum or temporary protected status.
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