Trump Empowers ICE to Revoke Legal Status of Hundreds of Thousands of Migrants and Deport Them

Staff Writer
(Photo: Archive)

The Trump administration has given immigration authorities the green light to strip legal status from hundreds of thousands of migrants who were allowed into the U.S. under the Biden administration, and start deportation proceedings. This decision, outlined in a memo from the Department of Homeland Security, could affect migrants who entered the country legally but now face the threat of being sent back.

The change gives federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the power to target migrants who came to the U.S. under government-approved programs. Many of these people were expecting to stay in the U.S. temporarily and were under the assumption they wouldn’t face deportation. Now, ICE can arrest, detain, and deport at least 1.5 million people who entered the U.S. in recent years through these programs.

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The new policy was approved by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman, who is filling in until South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is confirmed to officially take over the department. Huffman’s memo, which was first reported by The New York Times, directs ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on how to carry out two key directives he recently issued.

One of Huffman’s orders is to begin phasing out the Biden administration’s policies that allowed certain migrants into the U.S. using a process called parole. This authority lets presidents admit people into the country quickly for humanitarian reasons, but the Trump administration argues that the Biden administration overused it. Under Biden, parole was used to allow nearly 1 million migrants to enter the U.S. through a phone app called CBP One, which let migrants at the southern border make appointments for legal entry. That app was shut down right after Trump took office.

Parole was also used to let over half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela fly into the U.S. if they had sponsors who could financially support them. These migrants were granted temporary work permits as part of the parole program.

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Huffman’s second order expands a fast-track deportation process known as expedited removal. Previously, this was limited to areas near U.S. borders and migrants who had been in the country for less than two weeks. Now, expedited removal applies nationwide and includes anyone who can’t prove they’ve been in the U.S. for more than two years. This change is already facing challenges in court from pro-immigrant groups.

In the latest memo, Huffman tells immigration officials to review the cases of migrants affected by the new rules and decide who should be put into expedited removal. This could involve revoking their parole status and speeding up their deportation process. Even migrants who have been in the U.S. for more than two years could face deportation under these new rules, especially if their parole status is revoked due to changes in the law or facts about their case.

It’s still unclear whether these orders will also apply to other migrants who came to the U.S. under the Biden administration’s parole programs, such as the tens of thousands of Afghans brought in after the U.S. military left Kabul in 2021, or the 240,000 Ukrainians who were sponsored by Americans after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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