For seventy years, Republic and Democratic presidents alike have used a legal tool known as humanitarian parole to grant people unable to use standard immigration routes because of time pressure or their government’s poor relations with the U.S. access to the country.
During his administration, President Joe Biden has welcomed half a million Cubans, Haitian, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans using humanitarian parole.
But President-elect Donald Trump appears certain to dismantle this legal tool, saying during his campaign that he would end the “outrageous abuse of parole,” the Associated Press reports, which would result in a giant group of people with tenuous legal status having their protections vanish with a stroke of a pen.
The U.S. immigration laws are complicated, and drive many to enter the country illegally. But parole allows the president to admit people “for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.” Since 1952 it has been ordered 126 times by every president, except for Trump, according to the pro-immigration Cato Institute.
Trump, who made anti-immigration rhetoric a key part of his campaign, could revoke parole for everyone who has it, said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.
More than a million people have been granted parole under Biden, including tens of thousands of Afghans and Ukrainians.
Biden introduced parole for Venezuelans in October 2022 and expanded it in early 2023 to include Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans. These countries refuse to take back most citizens deported from the U.S.
Under an aspect of parole known as CHNV, up to 30,000 people from the four countries are accepted monthly. They can obtain work authorization for two years and apply online. The goal of the tool is dissuading migrants from crossing the border illegally.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 110,240 Cubans, 211,010 Haitians, 93,070 Nicaraguans, and 117,310 Venezuelans were granted parole through the end of October.
Manuel Castaño is a 39-year-old human rights activist from Nicaraguam who works in building maintenance in South Florida. He applied for parole in February 2023 after his uncle sponsored him, a requirement under the law. Less than a month later, he arrived at Miami with his wife and their 13-year-old daughter.
His parole expires in March 2025, and he has requested asylum, but that is a process that can take years.
“All immigrants are fearful,” said Castaño. He said he was threatened in his country and feared for his and his family in their homeland. “Going back to Nicaragua is not an option."
Mass termination of migrants’ two-year parole terms would be subject to legal challenge but the Trump administration could simply halt new admissions and just wait until beneficiaries’ status expired, Reichlin-Melnick said.
Another possibility, said Charles Kuck, a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, is that the Trump administration could find a relatively easy way to deport people granted parole because there are official records of them and their sponsors.
“Those are the easiest people to be in rounding up because the government knows where they live,” said Kuck.