US: Trump revokes temporary legal status of over 500,000 migrants

The administration of United States President, Donald Trump, has announced it will revoke the temporary legal status of more than half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

According to a federal government notice, affected migrants have been warned to leave the United States before their permits and deportation protection are cancelled on April 24.

The group of 530,000 individuals entered the country through a Biden-era sponsorship programme known as CHNV, which was aimed at providing legal migration pathways. Trump suspended the programme shortly after assuming office.

The programme, first introduced in 2022 by Democratic President Joe Biden, initially applied to Venezuelans before being extended to cover other nationalities. It allowed migrants and their immediate family members to fly into the US if they had American sponsors and remain for two years under a temporary immigration status known as parole.

According to the BBC, former President Joe Biden administration had maintained that the CHNV initiative would help reduce illegal crossings at the southern border and enable better vetting processes. 

However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday criticised the previous administration, saying the programme had failed to meet its intended objectives.

The agency stated that Biden officials had “granted them [migrants] opportunities to compete for American jobs and undercut American workers; forced career civil servants to promote the programs even when fraud was identified; and then blamed Republicans in Congress for the chaos that ensued and the crime that followed”.

Still, a 35-page notice published in the Federal Register indicated that some individuals under CHNV might be considered for continued stay in the US on a “case-by-case basis.”

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Trump is also weighing whether to end the temporary legal status of approximately 240,000 Ukrainians who fled to the US amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Before the programme was halted, CHNV had allowed more than 213,000 Haitians, 120,700 Venezuelans, 110,900 Cubans and over 93,000 Nicaraguans to legally enter the country.

In a separate development last month, DHS announced that it would end temporary protected status (TPS) for 500,000 Haitians in August. TPS, which is distinct from the CHNV programme, is typically granted to nationals from countries facing crises such as armed conflict or environmental disasters.

DHS has also terminated TPS for Venezuelans, though that decision is currently facing legal challenge.

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