The Donald Trump-led dispensation has hailed the Supreme Court’s decision to cancel a Joe Biden-era immigration programme that granted legal status to 500,000 people from four countries – Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who entered the US legally under “humanitarian parole” programs.
Following the Supreme Court order, Trump shared an image on his official Instagram account featuring dozens of aeroplanes taking off simultaneously, with bold text in the centre reading: “Let the deportation begin.” The post also caught the attention of socialite Lady Victoria Hervey, who commented, “We need this in the UK now.”
Trump and his Republican leaders hailed the high court ruling, and said: “You can’t have a situation where the Biden administration can fly in half a million illegal aliens in the last 24 months, and we’re having a conversation about, ‘Oh, maybe they should get to stay for life,’” Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller was quoted as saying by Politico — although neither the Supreme Court nor any other court has ruled that the Biden-era programmes were illegal.
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What is Humanitarian Parole?
The Supreme Court has allowed Trump’s administration to end temporary legal status, known as humanitarian parole, for over 500,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. This decision reverses a lower court’s order and could lead to swift deportations while legal battles continue.
The programme had been introduced by former President Joe Biden to manage immigration at the US-Mexico border, allowing people to live and work in the United States temporarily for humanitarian reasons or public benefit.
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Trump, who returned to office in January, signed an executive order on his first day to halt these parole schemes. His administration argued that the change would help facilitate faster deportations through a process called “expedited removal.”
The Supreme Court’s decision was issued without explanation, as is common in emergency cases. However, Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented, stating that the move would harm hundreds of thousands of people without a full review of their legal rights.
“Traumatic Impact”
Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, one of the plaintiffs, expressed dismay at Friday’s decision.
“Once again, the Trump administration blatantly proves their disregard for the lives of those truly in need of protection by taking away their status and rendering them undocumented. We have already seen the traumatic impact on children and families afraid to even go to school, church or work,” Jozef was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The administration called Friday’s decision a victory, asserting that the migrants granted parole had been poorly vetted. Ending the parole programs “will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety and a return to America First,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
While many of those with parole status are at risk of deportation, at least 250,000 had pending applications for another legal status, according to Karen Tumlin, director of the Justice Action Center, one of the groups suing over the parole termination. Those applications had been frozen by Trump’s administration but the freeze was lifted this week, said Tumlin, adding: “Those should be processed right now.”