The Trump administration is ending a Biden parole program that gave legal status to more than 500,000 migrants who flew to the U.S. from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela with work permits and other benefits as well as protection from deportation.
According to CBS News, 532,000 migrants entered the country under the program, called CHNV after the initials of the countries involved.
A notice will be published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that it would be “terminating the categorical parole programs for inadmissible aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela and their immediate family members.”
The migrants admitted under the program have 30 days from when the notice is published in the Federal Register to leave the country on their own or pursue other legal avenues of immigration to the U.S.
The notice is scheduled to be published on March 25, 2025.
The parole program did have expiration dates for benefits, but those will not be honored with the program's termination.
Similar programs for Afghan and Ukrainian parolees will not be affected at this time.
The CHNV program was adopted by Biden in 2022 and 2023. It was frozen in August 2024 when evidence came to light that many of the applications for sponsorship were fraudulent.
Still, up to 30,000 migrants from each of the four countries per month came into the U.S. largely unvetted, and Trump's DHS wants them to depart in much the same way.
Ostensibly, migrants who ignore this new directive would be subject to deportation if they are caught. They may also lose their livelihoods with their work permits, since employers will have no way to legally employ them.
Some of these moves by Trump and his administration may seem cruel, but it's important to reverse the tide of illegal immigration set off by Biden when he reversed all of Trump's immigration policies.
The longer the millions of illegal immigrants who came in during former President Joe Biden's tenure stay in the U.S., the harder it will be to deport them.
Not only that, but it will be more likely that if Democrats get enough power again one day, they would make them all legal citizens with voting rights.
If this happens, Republicans will never get a majority again because most of them will vote Democrat.
The country as we know it will be over. Trump knows this, and he is willing to withstand being called a meanie for a little while to get the job done.
