Washington, D.C. – The United States announced on Friday that it is terminating the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, giving them just weeks to leave the country.
President Donald Trump, who has vowed to carry out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history, issued the order affecting approximately 532,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. These individuals entered the U.S. under a program launched by former President Joe Biden in October 2022 and later expanded in January 2023.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the affected immigrants will lose their legal protection 30 days after the order is published in the Federal Register, which is scheduled for Tuesday. This means they must leave the country by April 24 unless they secure an alternative immigration status.
Welcome.US, an organization that assists refugees, urged those impacted to seek immediate legal counsel to explore possible options for staying in the U.S.
The terminated program, known as the Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV), allowed entry for up to 30,000 migrants per month for two years. Biden had promoted the initiative as a “safe and humane” way to manage migration pressures at the U.S.-Mexico border. However, DHS clarified on Friday that the scheme was always intended to be temporary.
“Parole is inherently temporary, and parole alone is not an underlying basis for obtaining any immigration status, nor does it constitute an admission to the United States,” DHS stated in its order.
Trump has intensified his crackdown on immigration in recent weeks. Last week, his administration invoked rare wartime legislation to deport more than 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador, which has offered to imprison migrants and even U.S. citizens at a discount.
