A federal appeals court ruled in favor of President Donald Trump's plan to deport 430,000 illegal immigrants, Newsweek reported. The Trump administration targeted a Biden-era policy that allowed people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to live in the U.S. for up to two years without a work permit.
The case was heard before a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, based in Boston. The Trump administration initially sought to end the so-called humanitarian parole protections that were a holdover from his predecessor as part of his plan to combat illegal immigration.
The program gave migrants who suffered natural disasters or other hardships the right to stay despite no other legal claim. The court acknowledged 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 judges 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," they added. The plaintiff's attorneys stated that the lower court, which initiated the block, "applied the law correctly and did not abuse its discretion."
The people in favor of allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to stay made the usual dire predictions about closing the loophole, the Associated Press reported. "People who came here from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela did everything the government asked of them, and the Trump administration cruelly and nonsensically failed to hold up the government’s end of the bargain," Esther Sung, an attorney in the case and the legal director of Justice Action Center, claimed.
Sung said the deportation would hurt "everyone" if it were allowed to stand. "While we are deeply disappointed by this decision, we will continue to advocate zealously for our clients and class members as the litigation continues."
A lower court had blocked the blanket deportations in April, but the Supreme Court intervened in May and lifted the stay without further explanation. The Trump administration attorneys urged the appeals court to adhere to the Supreme Court's decision in overturning the district court's decision.
While there is panic over this decision, humanitarian parole allowances have always been at the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security and could be revoked at will. The district court ruled that the cases should be handled individually by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer further argued that it presents a "gargantuan task" for the government to process the removals individually. "The Secretary’s discretionary rescission of a discretionary benefit should have been the end of the matter," the attorneys claimed in the legal filing.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump promised to conduct mass deportations. While this sent the left on a tear against him, voters seemed to like the idea and cast their ballots for him, knowing he would do just that, and have supported him even as the left has opposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
"We're moving murderers out of our country that were put here by Biden-- We're gonna get them out-- I can inform the rest of the country that if they do it [riot], they will be met with equal or greater force," Trump told the press in June. The clip was shared at the time to Libs of TikTok on X, formerly Twitter.
President Trump on future ICE raids and violent riots:
"We're moving murderers out of our country that were put here by Biden-- We're gonna get them out-- I can inform the rest of the country that if they do it [riot], they will be met with equal or greater force." 🔥 pic.twitter.com/3yCtCQHpMY
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 10, 2025
The most recent raid came at a Hyundai plant in Georgia this week, which was one that then-President Joe Biden had claimed was an indication of America's manufacturing rebound, Fox News reported. "It’s great to be here to announce the more than $10 billion in new investment in American manufacturing," Biden said in May 2022 from a plant in Korea. The raid found that at least 475 of those jobs went to illegal immigrants, mainly from South Korea.
Democrats let illegal immigration spiral out of control, but Trump is doing the will of the people by reining it in. He is attacking the issue from several angles, whether it's eliminating humanitarian parole or raiding places where they're employed. This is precisely what the majority of Americans voted for.
