Judge orders Trump to restore legal status of migrants who used Biden-era app
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A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration unlawfully terminated the legal status of thousands of immigrants allowed to live temporarily in the United States after they used an app expanded by the Biden administration to schedule appointments with immigration officials.
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston ordered the administration to reverse its move last year to revoke the legal status of immigrants who use the CBP One app.
The app was used to address the crisis at the border by allowing some immigrants to make appointments to seek asylum starting in 2023 under former President Joe Biden, sending many to the country on parole for up to two years, but President Donald Trump moved to shut down the app when he returned to the White House last year.
Burroughs found that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security acted illegally in April last year by sending mass emails to nearly 900,000 people who entered the country using the app, informing them that “it’s time for you to leave the United States.”
VENEZUELAN IMMIGRANTS SUE TRUMP AFTER PROGRESSIVE GROUP NOEM NIX’S BIDEN-ERA ‘PROTECTED STATUS’
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ordered the Trump administration to reverse its move last year to revoke the legal status of immigrants who use the CBP One app. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
“The regulations do not give the agency unfettered discretion to terminate parole,” Burroughs wrote.
“Defendants committed an ‘unlawful’ act when they terminated the parole of affected noncitizens without observing the process required by law and their regulations,” the judge added.
The Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts, one of the plaintiffs in the case, celebrated the ruling, saying it “brings long-awaited relief after months of fear and uncertainty.”
Democracy Forward, another group that helped launch the legal challenge, also praised the judge’s decision.
FEDERAL JUDGE APPROVED TEMPORARY PROTECTIVE STATUS FOR HAITIAN IMMIGRANTS
The app was used under former President Joe Biden to address the crisis at the border by allowing some immigrants to make appointments to seek asylum, with many sent to the country on parole for up to two years. (Sandy Huffaker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Today’s decision is a clear repudiation of an administration that seeks to erase the legal status of hundreds of thousands of people with a single click,” Skye Perryman, the group’s president, said in a statement. he said.
“Our clients followed the law: they waited, registered, were supervised, and were granted parole under the law. The Trump-Vance administration’s effort to eliminate this status overnight was illegal and cruel, and today the court rejected this harmful and destabilizing policy,” the statement said.
A DHS spokeswoman said the decision was an example of “blatant judicial activism” interfering with Trump’s authority to determine who stays in the country.
“Revoking these parolees is a promise made to the American people to secure our borders and protect our national security,” the spokesman said in a statement. he said.
The judge found that DHS acted unlawfully in April of last year by sending mass emails warning nearly 900,000 people who entered the country using the app that “it was time to leave the United States.” (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
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The decision follows a class-action lawsuit filed in August by three individuals from Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti, who argued that the Trump administration’s effort to remove them from the country was a sudden, unlawful move to strip parole status and work authorization from immigrants.
The Trump administration argued that Biden overstepped his parole authority by granting status generally rather than granting it on a case-by-case basis.
Burroughs said that when DHS sends termination notices to immigrants, it fails to comply with requirements to provide a record showing that an official has determined that parole has served its purposes.
“Accordingly, the termination of parole exceeded the agency’s statutory authority and was contrary to the procedures set forth in its regulations,” the judge wrote. he wrote.
Reuters contributed to this report.
