‘Lives torn apart': Miami activists decry Supreme Court ruling on migrant protections

Miami Herald

2 days ago

Reacting to the Trump administration's aggressive push to deport hundreds of thousands of migrants, a coalition of Miami-based activist organizations declared Monday that the campaign to expel their 'neighbors, coworkers, and even lovers' demands a response free of diplomatic restraint.
'I've realized that while we try to be politically correct, lives are being torn apart,' said Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition. 'We've become a quota. Because they can't meet their deportation targets, they're fabricating charges — illegally— just to satisfy an inhumane drive rooted in racism, xenophobia and white supremacy.'
Petit spoke during a press conference at the headquarters of the Family Action Network Movement, where activists condemned Friday's Supreme Court decision to dismantle the so-called CHNV humanitarian parole program, for the initials of the nationalities affected. The program had allowed hundreds of thousands of people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to legally enter the United States for two years.
The ruling threatens the legal status of more than half a million migrants — many of them now settled in South Florida.
Petit and others stressed that protecting migrants serves the national interest, calling on the U.S.-born children of earlier immigrant generations to stand in solidarity.
'To the American people, I say this: It's us now, but your turn will come,' Petit warned. 'If you don't look, speak, or act a certain way, your turn will come. You are allowing precedents that will change your world forever.'
Linda Julien, the first Haitian-American elected to the Miami Gardens City Council, denounced what she called the hypocrisy at the heart of U.S. immigration policy.
'We are a nation that sings liberty but whispers restrictions. A nation that demands labor but blocks legal pathways,' she said. 'Enough with the contradictions. Let this moment reflect not just compassion, but consistency.'
Haitians are the largest group affected by the CHNV program, with approximately 211,010 beneficiaries by the end of 2024. Initially excluded, Haitians were later included by the Biden administration in response to the country's collapse into violent instability. The goal was twofold: provide humanitarian relief and avert a mass migration crisis in South Florida.
Speaking on behalf of the 117,330 Venezuelans also facing deportation in the CHNV ruling, Adelys Ferro, executive director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, stressed that this is not an abstract policy dispute.
'This is about families. About dignity. About human beings who followed the rules and are now being punished for it,' she said.
Ferro pointed out that more than 530,000 CHNV recipients complied with a rigorous vetting process — undergoing background checks and securing U.S.-based sponsors who committed to financially supporting them.
For many Venezuelans fleeing the Nicolás Maduro regime—marked by violence, persecution and economic collapse—CHNV was a critical lifeline.
'It was the bridge that reunited parents with children, siblings torn apart by years of trauma, and survivors of authoritarian regimes who finally had a chance to rebuild in safety,' Ferro said.
The Supreme Court's ruling, she warned, jeopardizes even those who did everything right. 'This isn't about illegal entries or breaking the law,' she said. 'It targets people who entered legally, passed background checks and were federally approved.'
For Ana Sofia Pelaez, the fight for Cuban freedom is deeply personal — woven through generations. It's her grandparents arriving in Miami in the 1960s, her parents' sacrifices, her community's struggle. Today, it's also about over a hundred thousand Cubans facing potential detention and deportation following a ruling that sent shockwaves through immigrant communities nationwide.
'To force Cubans who have applied and received parole to return now would be a moral failure,' said Pelaez, co-founder and executive director of the Miami Freedom Project. 'The island is under a repressive dictatorship, where dissent is punished with imprisonment, torture and exile.'
The ruling is viewed by many in the Cuban-American community as a profound betrayal. Cuba remains gripped by crisis after the historic July 11, 2021, protests—the largest anti-government demonstrations in decades—were met with brutal crackdowns, mass arrests and long prison terms.
Cuba continues to suffer widespread shortages of food and medicine, a collapsing economy and unrelenting state surveillance.
'The government silences opposition through harassment and brutality,' Pelaez said. 'And economic desperation pushes people to the brink. This is not a place to which anyone should be forcibly returned.'