WASHINGTON — In a decision with sweeping humanitarian consequences, the Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for President Donald Trump to revoke temporary legal protections for over 500,000 immigrants, significantly escalating deportation risk for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The ruling marks a major turning point in the Trump administration’s intensified efforts to dismantle Biden-era immigration policies.
Acting on an emergency appeal, the court lifted a federal judge’s injunction that had prevented the administration from ending humanitarian parole for migrants from the four nations. The brief order, issued without explanation as is customary on the emergency docket, did not represent a final ruling on the legal battle, but it allows Trump’s deportation plan to move forward while litigation continues in the lower courts.
Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor publicly dissented from the decision, expressing deep concern over the consequences for hundreds of thousands of migrants.
The order comes just weeks after the Supreme Court allowed the administration to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for an additional 350,000 Venezuelan migrants. With Friday’s decision, the total number of people exposed to deportation nears one million, potentially creating the largest forced migration event initiated by U.S. policy in modern times.
The court’s decision followed a ruling from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who blocked the mass termination of parole and criticized the administration’s blanket approach. Talwani, an appointee of President Barack Obama, had ruled that revocation must occur on a case-by-case basis — a position supported by migrant advocates and legal scholars alike.
However, the administration argued such an individualized process would be logistically unfeasible. Solicitor General D. John Sauer contended that the original parole approvals were granted as a group, and there is no legal requirement to dismantle them individually. “Undertaking hundreds of thousands of separate reviews would be a gargantuan task,” Sauer told the court.
Friday’s ruling aligns with President Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda. During his 2024 campaign and since retaking office, he vowed to roll back Biden’s humanitarian protections and deport millions of migrants. The Department of Homeland Security has criticized the Biden administration’s parole program as too expansive, claiming it lacked adequate vetting and legal foundation.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson defended the move as consistent with federal immigration law, stating, “We are confident in the legality of our actions to protect the American people and look forward to further action from the Supreme Court to vindicate us.”
In contrast, Karen Tumlin, founder of the Justice Action Center, condemned the decision as a green light for mass deportation. “I cannot overstate how devastating this is,” she said. “The court allowed the Trump Administration to unleash widespread chaos — not just for our clients, but for their families, workplaces, and communities.”
The Supreme Court order now returns the case to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, where the broader legal questions surrounding the scope of the president’s parole powers will be litigated.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in her written dissent, warned that the decision effectively tears apart the lives of half a million migrants before courts have had a chance to fully evaluate the legal merits of the administration’s actions.
Talwani’s earlier ruling similarly acknowledged the human toll, noting that affected individuals would face a stark choice: flee the United States or remain and risk arrest, detention, and family separation.
The Biden administration had used humanitarian parole more than any other presidency since the policy’s inception in 1952, extending relief to hundreds of thousands fleeing war, persecution, and economic collapse. According to government records, over 532,000 people entered the U.S. under parole since late 2022, including Afghans, Ukrainians, and unaccompanied minors from Central America — all of whom had to secure financial sponsors and fund their own travel.
Attorneys for these migrants described Trump’s decision as the first-ever mass revocation of humanitarian parole in U.S. history, calling it “the largest mass illegalization event in modern American history.”
The case reflects a broader trend of Trump using the Supreme Court’s emergency docket to fast-track major immigration rollbacks. While the court has occasionally ruled against him — notably in a recent case involving the deportation of Venezuelan detainees under the Alien Enemies Act — the latest decision signals a willingness to endorse Trump’s expansive view of executive power in immigration matters.
Beyond legal implications, the ruling could impact millions of U.S. residents — from children born to migrant parents, to businesses that employ parolees, to schools and community services that support immigrant families. Advocates fear the removal of protections could lead to widespread humanitarian crises, homelessness, and family separations.
While the Supreme Court has not issued a final ruling, its interim decision is a major victory for Trump’s immigration crackdown, and a potentially devastating blow to migrants who believed their legal status in the U.S. was secure — at least temporarily.
