A federal judge has frozen a Trump administration plan to strip more than 10,000 immigrants of their legal status next week.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a temporary restraining order Saturday that extends the “family reunification parole” status of immigrants who were set to see it expire on Wednesday as part of the administration’s broad crackdown on immigration.
Talwani, an Obama appointee based in Boston, said immigration officials failed to properly notify those who might lose their legal authorization to remain in the United States, despite a requirement that they receive direct notification. Publishing the decision on Dec. 15 in the Federal Register — a government database — did not satisfy the requirement, Talwani ruled.
The Trump administration said it planned to provide the required “written notice” to affected immigrants through online accounts, but the judge said some immigrants with “parole” status got electronic notice weeks after the announcement last month, while others claim to have never been notified.
“Nothing in the record before the court suggests that most, let alone all, parolees do in fact have such accounts or when notice via such accounts was provided to the parolees,” Talwani wrote in her five-page order Saturday.
The revocation of family reunification parole comes amid a broader mass deportation campaign that has included the elimination of temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have fled countries facing economic strife, war and natural disasters. It also comes amid broader legal pushback against the administration’s abrupt efforts to effect mass deportations, which judges have routinely said has failed to provide adequate due process.
When the Trump administration ordered an end to the family reunification parole programs last month, it said about 15,000 people currently have such status. Not all would be immediately impacted by the cancellation since it does not cover those who had pending applications for a different immigration status when the termination was announced.
Immigrant rights advocates said they expected 10,000 to 12,000 immigrants would lose legal status this week without action by the court.
Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
One of the lawyers who brought the suit Talwani acted on Saturday, Karen Tumlin of the Justice Action Center, said the judge’s decision comes as “a huge sigh of relief” for families.
“While we aren’t in the clear, this immediate pause on de-legalizing individuals who came here with Family Reunification Parole means that people will not be forced to separate from their loved ones next week,” Tumlin said. “We are talking about people who have done everything the U.S. government has asked of them and who, in many cases, are mere weeks or months from finally receiving their green cards. It’s cruel and completely unnecessary for the Trump administration to try to yank the rug out from under them.”
Last April, Talwani halted the Trump administration’s plan to end “parole” status, including work permits, for about 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
However, in May, the Supreme Court granted an emergency request from the Trump administration to lift her order. The court’s majority did not explain its rationale, but two of its liberal members dissented.
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