March 22 (UPI) — The Trump administration announced that it plans to revoke the legal status of 532,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who came into the United States under a sponsorship process during the Biden administration.
The termination, known as parole, will take effect on April 24, 30 days after published in the Federal Register on March 25, according to a 35-page notice posted by the federal government.
Migrants are being urged by the administration to self-deport or face arrest and removal by deportation agents. They should report their departure once outside the United States via the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Home mobile app, according to the notice.
The program, referred to as CHNV, was implemented during the Biden administration to give migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela an opportunity to enter the country legally.
“Parolees without a lawful basis to remain in the United States following this termination of the CHNV parole programs must depart the United States before their parole termination date,” the notice said.
Between Oct. 19, 2022, and Jan. 22, approximately “532,000 inadmissible aliens received parole into the United States pursuant to the CHNV parole programs,” HHS said.
The program was first launched for people coming from Venezuela in 2022 and was expanded for migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua in January 2023.
In October, the Biden administration said it would not be extending the protection for roughly 214,000 Haitians, 117,000 Venezuelans, 111,000 Cubans and 96,000 Nicaraguans. They were urged to apply for other immigration benefits, including for those could qualify for asylum.
Under the program, migrants and their immediate family members could fly into the United States if they had American sponsors, and were permitted to remain in the country for two years under the parole program.
“Over the previous two years, DHS has implemented programs through which inadmissible aliens who are citizens or nationals of designated countries, and their immediate,” HHS said. “Under these categorical parole programs, potentially eligible beneficiaries were adjudicated on a case-by-case basis, for advance authorization to travel to a U.S. port of entry (“POE”) in the interior of the country to seek a discretionary grant of parole.”
After his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order that established a U.S. policy to take all appropriate action to secure the borders through a range of means, “including deterring and preventing the entry of illegal aliens into the United States, and removing promptly all aliens who enter or remain in violation of Federal law.”
Last month, DHS announced the temporary protected status for those in Haiti and Venezeuala facing unsafe conditions, such as armed conflict or environmental disasters.
DHS announced it would on Aug. 3 end TPS for 500,000 Haitians living in the U.S. and for 600,000 Venezuelans on April 7.
Trump has spoken with the governments of Salvadore, Colombia and India about assistance with the deportations.
On Feb. 15, Panama received the first U.S. military plane transporting 119 deportees of various nationalities for repatriation to their own respective countries.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CBS News, the migrants allowed into the U.S. under the CHNV process were “loosely vetted,” and said the program undercut American workers.
“The termination of the CHNV parole programs, and the termination of parole for those who exploited it, is a return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety and a return to America First,” McLaughlin said.
Karen Tumlin, founder of the Justice Action Center in California, told the BBC her organization is set to challenge the move in court.
She said the decision hurts people “who did everything right that the US Government asked of them,” noting “their sponsors in the United States paid the fees, filled out the government paperwork, waited in line.”
“To say ‘oh, we’re so sorry, even if you had 18 months left on your grant of permission to be here we’re going to pull the rug out from under you in the next 30 days,’ it’s really quite surprising.”
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan is leading an aggressive effort to deport migrants who are not properly documented.
He also has been targeting the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
“President [Donald] Trump promised the American people that we’re going to concentrate on Tren de Aragua,” Homan said in February. “They’re one of our priorities.”