A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that the Trump administration may terminate temporary humanitarian parole protections for roughly 430,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, lifting a lower-court stay and allowing the administration to proceed while the underlying lawsuit continues.
The three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that, although a district court had found that ending the protections would cause irreparable harm, the plaintiffs had not shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits that would justify maintaining the stay. The parole programs, created during the Biden administration, generally allowed qualified migrants to live and work in the United States for about two years.
The ruling does not immediately change conditions on the ground, the court noted, but it removes the district court’s temporary injunction that had blocked the administration’s March decision to end the parole protections. In April, a federal judge issued that stay; the Supreme Court later lifted the lower-court order at the end of May without an extended explanation.
“In this case, we recognize the risks of irreparable harm persuasively laid out in the district court’s order: that parolees who lawfully arrived in this country were suddenly forced to choose between leaving in less than a month — a choice that potentially includes being separated from their families, communities, and lawful employment and returning to dangers in their home countries,” the appeals panel wrote. “But absent a strong showing of likelihood of success on the merits, the risk of such irreparable harms cannot, by itself, support a stay.”
The Justice Department argued in court filings that the Department of Homeland Security has statutory authority to revoke temporary parole and that the programs were always intended to be discretionary and temporary. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the appeals court that requiring case-by-case rescissions would be a “gargantuan task” that would impede efforts to seek removal for individuals the government considers ineligible for long-term presence.
Attorneys for migrants and advocacy groups urged the appeals court to uphold the district court’s finding that the Homeland Security secretary could not categorically end protections without individualized consideration of humanitarian factors. They argued the administration ignored the humanitarian grounds that prompted the parole programs and that the collective revocation amounted to an unprecedented mass illegalization.
Esther Sung, legal director of the Justice Action Center, which is co-counsel for the plaintiffs, said the ruling “hurts everyone.” She said migrants who complied with program requirements were being left without the protections they were promised and vowed continued litigation on behalf of affected individuals and the class.
The contested parole pathways were established under the previous administration to provide temporary legal status and work authorization to migrants fleeing crises in their home countries. The Trump administration’s March rescission marked the first nationwide, categorical revocation of such humanitarian parole protections for these groups, according to filings by the migrants’ attorneys, who described the move as among the largest mass illegalization actions in modern U.S. history.
The appeals court’s order is a notable win for the Trump administration as it continues efforts begun after the 2024 election to roll back migration policies implemented by the Biden administration. The decision allows the administration to proceed with its categorical rescission while courts resolve questions about the legality and procedures of that action. Litigation in the district court and potential further appeals are expected to continue.