A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a lower court’s block on the DHS’s move to revoke temporary legal status for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
Earlier this year, a Massachusetts-based federal judge blocked President Trump’s mass cancellation of the Biden-era parole program that had ushered in hundreds of thousands of migrants.
US District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee in Boston, previously said Trump’s decision to cancel the parole program was premised on legal error.
In late May, the US Supreme Court ruled that President Trump was allowed to revoke the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants in the US under Biden’s parole program.
BREAKING: SCOTUS delivers a HUGE win to the Trump administration, reversing a lower court by granting the Trump administration the ability to revoke the legal status of more than 530,000 migrants who Biden flew into the U.S. via the CHNV mass parole program. These are migrants… pic.twitter.com/faknoptnia
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 30, 2025
On Friday, the First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the lower court’s ruling.
The three-judge panel included: Gelpi (Biden), Montecalvo (Biden), Kayatta (Obama).
Bloomberg Law reported:
The Department of Homeland Security’s termination of temporary protections for half a million migrant parolees survived a federal appellate court test, bolstering the legal basis for Trump administration efforts to target humanitarian parole programs.
Plaintiffs challenging the revocation of parole for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela hadn’t made a strong showing the move was arbitrary and capricious, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held Friday in reversing a lower court.
The US Supreme Court has allowed the government to move ahead with revoking CHNV parole grants, approving an emergency request by DHS to ignore a district court order blocking removal of those immigrants while litigation unfolds.
The agency has moved to dismantle a broad swathe of temporary humanitarian programs, discontinuing refugee resettlement, restricting asylum, and suspending entry through several parole pathways besides the CHNV process. It’s also sought to eliminate humanitarian relief for hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the US as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, including many Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans shielded by Temporary Protected Status.
JUST IN: 1st Cir panel unanimously overturns ruling blocking Trump’s revocation of immigration parole for 500K+ from Cuba/Haiti/Nicaragua/Venezuela. #SCOTUS stayed ruling in May. Gelpi/Montecalvo (Bidenx2)/Kayatta (Obama) https://t.co/mhGcksyli3 Earlier: https://t.co/Oeb7TATqw3
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) September 12, 2025
