A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's administration from abolishing a parole program for illegal immigrants on Wednesday, Fox News reported. However, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a similar ruling on the issue Friday, which could signal another future win for the administration on this issue.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of Massachusetts ruled against abolishing the parole program created under then-President Joe Biden. Migrants from Ukraine, Latin America, and Afghanistan, along with their immediate family members, were given two years to reside in the U.S.
The program stipulated that parolees and their families must have an American sponsor to participate. Some were also granted access to the program after working as translators for the American military.
Abolishing the program immediately suspended the application for hundreds of thousands of migrants wishing to renew their legal status or apply for work permits. Trump targeted this as one of the many ways to crack down on illegal immigration.
Talwani ruled against the Trump administration's assertion that it had broad powers over the immigration system. The judge, an Obama appointee, said that it was within the purview of the Department of Homeland Security and granted class-action status to the migrants.
According to Talwani, it's "not in the public interest to manufacture a circumstance in which hundreds of thousands of individuals will, over the course of several months, become unlawfully present in the country, such that these individuals cannot legally work in their communities or provide for themselves and their families," she wrote. The decision also extended to humanitarian parolee cases.
"Nor is it in the public interest for individuals who enlisted and are currently serving in the United States military to face family separation, particularly where some of these individuals joined the military in part to help their loved ones obtain lawful status," the judge added. One of the plaintiff attorneys, Anwen Hughes from Human Rights First, championed Talwani's decision in a statement.
"This ruling reaffirms what we have always known to be true: our government has a legal obligation to respect the rights of all humanitarian parole beneficiaries and the Americans who have welcomed them into their communities. We share the judge’s hope that the government will adhere to this order and immediately resume adjudicating our clients’ applications for relief," Hughes wrote.
This decision is in line with Talwani's ruling last month for migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Haiti. In that case, the judge found that status determinations must be made on an individual basis, though it has since been overturned.
According to NBC News, the Supreme Court overturned Talwani's earlier ruling because she was not authorized to decide such matters. The high court weighed in after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem filed an emergency petition, which was granted Friday.
This impacts some 532,000 migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Haiti who have now seen their status become immediately illegal. However, the affected individuals still have the option to apply for asylum, which many have already done.
Predictably, left-leaning Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the opinion. Jackson claimed that the court's short opinion ignored "the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending."
Justice Action Center attorney Karen Tumlin cited the same concerns. "I cannot overstate how devastating this is: The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump Administration to unleash widespread chaos, not just for our clients and class members, but for their families, their workplaces, and their communities," Tumlin claimed.
With Talwani's initial block already overturned, it seems any subsequent decision could meet the same fate. This is good news for the Trump administration and all who value a tighter, more secure immigration system.
