Trump Paves Way For Immigration Officials To Deport Migrants Biden Allowed Into Us Legally

The Department of Homeland Security has empowered federal immigration officials to bypass protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants who entered the country legally through Biden administration programs and begin immediate and rapid deportations, according to an agency memo obtained by POLITICO.

The memo, issued by acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman, authorizes Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to arrest, detain and, in some cases, deport some migrants without a hearing before an immigration judge — a power that has often been reserved for encounters at the southern border. It likely paves the way for the Trump administration to expel some of the more than 1 million immigrants who entered the country legally through two key Biden-era policies.

The new guidance could affect immigrants who entered the United States via a mobile app that allowed migrants to schedule appointments with immigration authorities and be granted parole into the country on a case-by-case basis. It also could target recipients of the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program that allowed certain migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti to enter the United States legally on a temporary basis. The Biden administration argued that these programs took pressure off of the southern border by establishing new legal pathways. President Donald Trump and Republicans claim the programs have been abused and intensified an immigration crisis.

The move, first reported by The New York Times, is further indication that Trump not only plans to tackle the southern border and illegal immigration but that the ripple effects of his crackdown will extend to migrants who entered the country legally. Advocates in recent months have sounded the alarm for these groups, as the government has their information — making them more vulnerable to deportation.

It is not yet clear how many people the directive will impact. Each migrant’s outcome will depend on whether they’re already in removal proceedings or if they have received temporary protected status or another legal status since they first received parole. It’s also unclear if this will affect other migrants, including Afghan and Ukrainian immigrants who entered the United States through separate programs.

The new guidance follows two orders Huffman issued in recent days, including one that directed officials to wind down the use of parole. Parole has been used by every Republican and Democratic president since Dwight Eisenhower and is an authority that allows the government to grant migrants temporary permission to live and work in the U.S., though there’s no path toward citizenship. It’s been used for humanitarian reasons or for significant public benefit, such as allowing a key witness to be paroled into the country long enough to testify in a criminal trial.

Former President Joe Biden’s parole program, known as CHNV, allowed certain migrants to live and work in the United States for two years if they had a U.S.-based sponsor and could fly into the country instead of arriving at the border.

The second order from Huffman expanded the fast-track deportation authority known as expedited removal, which has typically been limited to areas within 100 miles of the U.S. border and applied to migrants who were in the country for less than two weeks. Huffman’s order expands it nationwide and said this would also apply to migrants who could not prove they’ve been in the country continuously for more than two years, a move that the ACLU quickly challenged.

The memo, signed Thursday night, directs immigration authorities to review cases and determine who is eligible to be removed from the country quickly, and in some cases, this could include revoking the parol status of an individual. He said those who are not eligible for expedited removal because they’ve been in the country for more than two years could also be deported.