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532,000 Immigrants Lose Legal Status in Landmark Supreme Court Ruling
In a landmark decision on May 30, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to grant the Trump administration the authority to revoke the temporary legal status of approximately 532,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
The ruling reverses a lower court’s order, marking a significant victory for President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda and potentially leading to the deportation of hundreds of thousands of migrants who had been granted humanitarian parole under the Biden administration.
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The case, Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, et al. v. Svitlana Doe, et al., centered on the Biden-era CHNV (Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela) humanitarian parole program. Initiated in 2022 and expanded in 2023, the program allowed up to 30,000 nationals from these four countries to enter the U.S. each month with a sponsor, granting them a two-year period to live and work legally in the country. The program was designed to provide a safe and orderly pathway for migrants fleeing dire conditions in their home countries while reducing unauthorized border crossings. According to a 2023 overview by the American Immigration Council, the program received 1.5 million applications in its first few months, reflecting the overwhelming demand for legal entry.
However, the Trump administration moved swiftly to dismantle the program upon taking office. On his first day, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to terminate all categorical parole programs. In March 2025, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the immediate termination of the CHNV program, affecting those already enrolled. This decision was challenged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, where Judge Indira Talwani ruled on April 15, 2025, that the termination violated federal law by failing to conduct case-by-case reviews, as required by statute. Talwani’s order temporarily blocked the revocation of the immigrants’ status.
The Trump administration appealed directly to the Supreme Court, which issued a stay on Talwani’s ruling in a brief order on May 30, 2025. The Court’s decision allows the administration to proceed with revoking the legal status of the 532,000 immigrants while the case continues in the lower courts. The stay will remain in effect until the First Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the appeal and, if a petition for a writ of certiorari is filed, until the Supreme Court decides whether to take up the case. If the Court denies certiorari, the stay will automatically terminate; if the case is taken up, the stay will persist until the Court issues its final judgment.
The ruling has sparked intense debate. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the majority opinion. In her dissent, Jackson wrote, “It undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending,” as reported by Axios on May 30, 2025. The decision follows a similar ruling on May 23, 2025, when the Supreme Court allowed the administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status for 350,000 Venezuelans, reflecting a broader push to tighten immigration policy. As the legal battle continues in the lower courts, the fate of these 532,000 immigrants remains uncertain, highlighting the contentious nature of immigration policy in the U.S. and raising questions about the nation’s approach to humanitarian commitments.
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