BOSTON (WHDH) – Immigration advocates have filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts challenging the Trump administration’s termination of a key asylum program through the CBP One app. The lawsuit seeks to reinstate parole protections for immigrants who legally entered the U.S. through the app.
The Biden administration launched CBP One to try to streamline immigration processes and prevent illegal border crossings. Migrants seeking asylum used the app to schedule appointments at the southern border. Those who qualified were vetted by Border Patrol agents and granted temporary parole.
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and Democracy Forward filed the suit on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Plaintiffs in the case include the Venezuelan Association for Massachusetts, a Haitian woman living in Massachusetts, a Venezuelan woman living in Ohio, and a Cuban woman living in Texas.
The lawsuit names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as defendants, among others.
Immigration advocates estimate that ending the program affects hundreds of thousands of migrants nationwide.
“These individuals are fleeing life-threatening conditions in their home countries, and followed the exact process that the government requires to be able to come into the United States lawfully,” said Heather Arroyo, a senior immigration attorney at MLRI.
In April, the Trump administration sent out parole termination notices to immigrants who were granted legal status through the CBP One app, telling them to leave the country immediately. A letter provided by MLRI states in part:
“You are currently here because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) paroled you into the United States for a limited period…DHS is now exercising its discretion to terminate your parole…If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your removal from the United States.”
Advocates say that while the exact number is unknown, Massachusetts is home to a large community of people who were granted parole through the program. The lawsuit contends that because parole was granted on a case by case basis, the federal government must revoke parole through the same individualized process. They say the sweeping cancellation poses a broader threat to everyone’s right to due process.
“There was no process whatsoever of taking an individualized look at people who already had parole and saying this is why it’s being revoked,” Arroyo said. “They were not provided with any meaningful opportunity to contest the reason why it was being taken away from them.”
DHS argues President Biden abused his parole authority more than any other president since its inception in 1952, which “further fueled the worst border crisis in U.S. history.”
More than 900,000 people entered the U.S. using the CBP One app during its operation. Those granted parole were generally allowed to remain and work in the U.S. for two years. Minutes after President Trump was sworn in, he shut down the app as part of a broader immigration crackdown, leaving thousands of migrants stranded. Immigration advocates say the decision to end the parole program creates a culture of chaos and fear.
“Individuals who were members of our communities, who had jobs, who paid taxes, are suddenly being told that they needed to go back to countries that they were seeking asylum from,” said Brian Netter, legal director at Democracy Forward. “It’s deeply problematic, not just in terms of their legal rights, but also to the communities that are being torn apart.”
“There are people who are literally going hungry in their homes because they’re scared to leave due to the threat of being arrested by ICE on the way to the grocery store,” Arroyo said. “Creating this type of fear is coercing people to leave even if they have the legal ability to stay here.”
As the threat of deportation looms, advocates are pushing for an expedited ruling. The Trump administration has not commented on the lawsuit.
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