Trump Administration Illegally Ended Parole for Immigrants Who Used Biden-Era App: Judge

The Trump administration failed to follow proper procedure when it terminated temporary protection for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, a federal judge said on March 31.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary can terminate parole, the temporary protection, but must only do so after finding that “the purposes of such parole … have been served,” according to federal law.

The Biden administration granted parole for more than 900,000 illegal immigrants in 2025, according to lawyers for some of the immigrants. Government officials ended the parole in 2025 after the DHS secretary found the purposes of the parole had been served.

But officials provided no documentation of that determination, meaning that the DHS did not adhere to the law and agency rules, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said on March 31.

“Accordingly, the parole terminations exceeded the agency’s statutory authority and contradicted the procedures set forth in its own regulations,” she said in a 25-page ruling.

Burroughs vacated an April 2025 email sent by officials to some foreign nationals who had been granted parole, telling them, “It is time for you to leave the United States” and “please depart the United States immediately.”

She ordered officials to grant parole to people whose parole had been revoked in April 2025.

“Today’s ruling is a clear rejection of an administration that has tried to erase lawful status for hundreds of thousands of people with the click of a button,” Sky Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is helping represent the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

A DHS spokesperson in a statement called the ruling “blatant judicial activism” that interfered with President Donald Trump’s authority to determine who remains in the United States.

“Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect our national security,” the spokesperson said.

The ruling came in a class-action lawsuit filed by three people from Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti, as well as the advocacy group Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts, who argued that the Trump administration’s action constituted an abrupt, unlawful move to strip immigrants of their parole status and work authorization.

Such immigrants had been generally granted two-year terms of humanitarian parole after using a Biden-era app called CBP One to schedule an appointment with Customs and Border Protection to cross the U.S.–Mexico border.

The DHS under then-President Joe Biden began requiring many asylum seekers to use that app in 2023 to alleviate chaos at the border.

Reuters contributed to this report.