Launched in October 2022 for Venezuelans and expanded in January 2023 for Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans, the Biden administration’s Humanitarian Parole Program (HPP) would allow up to 30,000 citizens from those countries to enter the United States each month.
The goal was to reduce irregular border crossings and give migrants a legal means of entry at a time when the southern border was saturated and Republicans were intensifying their attacks on Biden for his “open border policy.”
As is known, applicants needed a sponsor in the United States — U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or other individuals with legal status, including organizations. Those who had crossed into Panama, Mexico, or the United States without authorization after the program’s start date were ineligible. Nor were those intercepted in the waters of the Florida Straits (Cubans and Haitians).
By December 2024, approximately 530,000 people had entered the United States through the HPP: 211,040 Haitians, 117,330 Venezuelans, 110,240 Cubans, and 93,070 Nicaraguans.
Alejandro Mayorkas: “if you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States”
Republicans and the HPP
On January 25, 2023, twenty Republican states filed a lawsuit in a Texas federal court against the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and other Biden agencies and officials, alleging that they lacked the legal authority to implement the HPP. They also argued that the influx of such large numbers of immigrants would harm those states.
In the texts and reports devoted to this topic, the entity behind the lawsuit often remains obscure: America First Legal, an organization led by Stephen Miller, currently President Donald Trump’s national security adviser and deputy chief of staff. Here, a central element of Republican discourse appears for the first time: the so-called “executive overreach,” one of the philosophical and conceptual foundations of the move.
The radical left is using its power inside and outside of government to destroy our country. It is opening America’s borders, shutting down American energy, trying to hijack American elections, and violating the fundamental civil rights of the American people.
At America First Legal we are assembling a team of some of the nation’s finest legal, political, and strategic thinkers to challenge this lawlessness at every turn. We will use every legal tool at our disposal to defend our citizens from unconstitutional executive overreach.
At the end of the legal process, in March 2024, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit and decided to maintain the HPP, finding that the litigating states had failed to demonstrate that it had caused them “significant harm.”
Furthermore, at one point in its implementation under Biden, the HPP was paused due to irregularities and fraud, followed by a review process by authorities. The decision was made in mid-July 2024, after an internal report uncovered fraud in sponsors’ applications. It was later resumed.
Overall, supporters of the HPP praised it for providing safe means and reducing border tensions; its critics and opponents, including Republican lawmakers, argued that it exceeded executive authority and resembled an unauthorized visa program.
Deconstructing the HPP from the executive branch
Upon taking office, the new administration decided to cancel the HPP through Executive Order 14165 of January 20, 2025. This document was supplemented by at least two internal provisions: the Hofman Memorandum and the Davidson Memorandum. Their objective was to dismantle it by resorting to sui generis interpretations of federal laws and provisions.
They were, in fact, a reenactment of decisions that had already been made in the transition meetings held at Mar-a-Lago with the new president’s advisors and members of conservative think tanks, particularly the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
In the first document, curiously issued on that same January 20, the then-Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Benjamin C. Huffman, declared that it was “clear that many current DHS policies and practices governing parole are incompatible” with the new administration.
He emphasized that current legislation made it “very clear that this is a limited-use power, applicable only in a very limited set of circumstances,” and that the statute did not authorize “categorical parole programs that make aliens eligible based on a set of generally applicable criteria.”
Finally, he ordered that within 60 days, the Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) compile and review all parole-related policies and develop a plan to eliminate them.
In the second document, issued on February 14, Andrew J. Davidson, then Acting Deputy Director of USCIS, authorized the immediate administrative suspension of all pending applications for readjustment of status and benefits filed by individuals paroled into the United States under the HPP “for additional verification to identify any fraud, public safety, or national security concerns.”
And it concluded: “Any case subject to this administrative suspension requiring litigation may only be lifted on a case-by-case basis, with the approval of the Director or Deputy Director of USCIS. This case-by-case requirement must be met even when the aliens belong to a class subject to a court order, settlement agreement, or other judicial order.”
The avalanche
On March 25, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published in the Federal Register that it was “terminating the parole programs for inadmissible aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela” effective immediately.
It stated: “The temporary parole period of aliens in the United States under the CHNV parole programs and whose parole has not already expired by April 24, 2025, will terminate on that date unless the Secretary [Kristy Noem] makes an individual determination to the contrary.”
Finally, he stipulated: “Parolees without a lawful basis to remain in the United States following this termination of the CHNV parole programs must depart the United States before their parole termination date.”
Biden gave the recipients two years of legal stay, specifying that after that time, they must seek immigration relief to remain in the United States. The Federal Register introduced a U-turn by declaring them out of the game if they reached April 24 without that relief. “The temporary parole period of aliens in the United States under the CHNV parole programs and whose parole has not already expired [30 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register] will terminate on that date unless the Secretary [of Homeland Security Kristi Noem] makes an individual determination to the contrary.”
In other words, they could be deported if they didn’t have this immigration relief, which unleashed additional collective stress to what already existed among those who, until then, had not been under the cloak of other protection, including Cubans who had not met the one-year-plus-one-day deadline established by the Cuban Adjustment Act (1966) to obtain permanent residence (green card). The Miami immigration attorneys suggested they file for political asylum or some other procedure that would “seal” their cases in the courts.
On Saturday, March 29, the HPP beneficiaries received an absolutely unprecedented message in their emails. “We have taken action on your case, and it needs your attention,” it announced. “You must leave the United States now, but no later than the end of your parole.”
It was an ultimatum from the Federal Government for these undesirable aliens to return to their respective countries on their own. “As of the date your parole ends, you may be subject to expedited removal pursuant to Section 235 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) or removal proceedings pursuant to Section 240 of the INA. Either may result in your removal unless you have departed the United States or obtained a lawful basis to remain in the United States.”
In the email, federal authorities also touched on a particularly sensitive issue: work permits. “DHS intends to revoke your employment authorization because the condition under which you were granted employment authorization, based on parole, no longer exists.”
Ten days before the deadline, on April 14, Boston federal judge Indira Talwani issued a red flag to the government in the case of Svitlana Doe, et al. v. Noem, et al.
The USCIS website currently reads as follows:
On April 14, 2025, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a Preliminary Injunction Order staying parts of the March 25, 2025, Federal Register notice titled “Termination of Parole Process for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV).” See Svitlana Doe, et al., v. Noem, et. al., No. 25-cv-10495 (D. Mass. Apr. 14, 2025). Pursuant to the order, the parole termination notices that were sent to aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela pursuant to the Federal Register notice are stayed and therefore not currently in effect. No new requests for CHNV parole will be processed.
