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Let Them Stay Update #2: June 19, 2025 

June 19, 2025

This is a monthly newsletter about humanitarian parole and policy changes impacting people who entered the United States on parole and their supporters. The newsletter will include updates on policy, litigation, and Congressional activity impacting parole, tell stories about people on parole and their communities, and share resources and explainers. 

Since our first newsletter, the Trump administration has continued its efforts to revoke parole and work authorization from people who came into the United States on the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela (CHNV) parole program and to arrest people who entered through CBP One appointments and were trying to pursue their cases in immigration court. Meanwhile, Congress is currently considering a funding bill that will dramatically boost the administration’s ability to detain and deport people who entered on parole and limit access to parole and other humanitarian statuses in the future.  

This newsletter is part of a campaign to oppose these efforts because they imperil people in need of safety and deprive American cities and towns of beloved and valuable community members. 

→ Click here to access our constituent take action and toolkit to Let Them Stay.

Latest on Litigation

Doe v. Noem is a case challenging the termination of the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela (CHNV) parole processes and the halting of adjudications of immigration applications for parolees who entered on CHNV and other parole programs including Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) and family reunification parole.

Here’s where we are:

The Supreme Court has given DHS the authority to proceed with terminating CHNV parole grants and CHNV-based employment authorizations while the First Circuit Court of Appeals decides on the legality of en masse revocation of parole for people who entered through CHNV. On June 11, 2025, the Trump administration filed its brief with the appeals court insisting that parole grants, but not terminations, must be individualized. It also claims the “continued presence in the United States” of people paroled through the CHNV program is “contrary to U.S. interests,” which it equates with the desires of the President. 

On June 16, 2025 the plaintiffs asked the District Court in Massachusetts (which originally heard the case)  to rule on the legality of the administration’s Federal Register Notice ending early and en masse the parole of all who came in on CHNV. The plaintiffs claim the mass termination was arbitrary because it didn’t consider the humanitarian purpose of parole and the distinct humanitarian concerns for individual parolees from different countries. The brief also highlights the injustice of terminating the parole and work authorization of over 200,000 people (half of CHNV parolees) who have applied for adjustment of status to lawful permanent residence, asylum, or temporary protected status. The termination undermines their ability to stay in the United States to await adjudication of the applications (which the court previously ordered the administration to resume). The brief also argues that electronic notices of parole termination were insufficient. 

CHIRLA v. Noem is a case challenging the administration’s placement of people who entered through parole into expedited removal, a fast-track deportation process that occurs in detention and does not allow for a full hearing in immigration court. 

Here’s where we are: 

On June 11, the plaintiffs asked that the court stop the administration from “applying summary deportation proceedings to hundreds of thousands of people who entered the

country legally through humanitarian parole.” The plaintiffs also submitted declarations from several immigration attorneys whose clients had come in through CBP One appointments and been arrested at immigration court, including the attorney for the Venezuelan high school student we mentioned in our previous newsletter. The declaration explains how ICE concealed its intent to arrest him after dismissal of his court proceedings and made it difficult for his attorney to find where he was detained after arrest. Though he remains detained in Pennsylvania, a New York immigration judge has agreed to reopen proceedings in his case so that he can pursue special immigration juvenile status. 

Another lawsuit related to CBP One – Al Otro Lado v Trump –  has been filed in federal district court in California. It challenges the Trump administration’s canceling of CBP One appointments, stranding people in danger in Mexico, and ending access to asylum at land border ports of entry. You can read more about this case here. 

As mentioned in the last newsletter, the Trump administration’s termination of TPS for Afghanistan is being challenged in federal court in Maryland in Casa, Inc. v. Noem. On June 13, 2025, the Trump administration filed an administrative record revealing how it took facts out of context to justify TPS termination. For example, the federal register notice terminating Afghanistan TPS cites an uptick in Chinese tourism from an article (included in the administrative record) highlighting Taliban promotion of tourism to reshape its image and requiring visitors to obtain written permission to visit attractions and document their experiences. Other documents in the record indicate that the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan has worsened since last year rather than improved. 

Latest on Enforcement Policies 

At immigration courts across the country, arrests continue of people who were paroled after entering with CBP One appointments, including the arrest of an Afghan translator in immigration court in San Diego. 

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision but before DHS began issuing parole termination and work permit revocation notices to people who entered on CNHV on June 12, some employers – including Walmart in Texas and North Dakota, and a retirement community in Florida – had already started terminating employees with parole-related work permits. Other employers have begun to call in employees to check if they still have legal permission to work. It is not clear whether and how DHS plans to notify employers about revoked work permits since many employers do not use E-verify to check the status of their workers. Employers are concerned about losing valuable employees and about being targeted in increasing numbers of worksite raids. Labor unions nationwide are speaking up for their members who came in on CHNV and now work in auto parts manufacturing in the Midwest, building appliances in places like Louisville, Kentucky, and at meat and poultry processing plants around the country. 

Even as the Trump administration announced termination of CHNV parole and TPS for several countries, it has also announced a ban on travel to the United States by nationals of some of the same countries, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela (among several others). The administration is also using the threat of further visa bans to get dozens of mostly African countries to agree to accept deportation of third country nationals from the United States. 

Latest from Congress

The Senate has now released its version of a reconciliation funding bill, and like the House version discussed in the last newsletter, it heavily focuses on immigration enforcement. Though it is a funding bill, it makes major changes to immigration policy, specifically undermining protections for unaccompanied children, mandating the implementation of the Remain in Mexico policy, and other measures that taken together make it practically impossible to access and live in the United States on humanitarian statuses. 

The bill: 

  • provides $45 billion to ICE for detention facilities that can indefinitely detain families and that need not be state licensed
  • provides $13.5 billion to support state level immigration enforcement activities
  • provides $32 billion for deportation
  • provides $3.3 billion for Department of Defense personnel deployment to the border and detention of immigrants at bases. 
  • creates a $6 billion immigration enforcement slush fund for “costs incurred in undertaking activities in support of the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to safeguard the borders of the United States to protect against the illegal entry of persons.” 
  • imposes high fees on applications for parole, asylum, temporary protected status and work permits.
  • strips lawfully present immigrants – including resettled refugees, humanitarian parolees, victims of trafficking – from eligibility for food assistance, financial aid for education, and for CHIP, Medicaid, insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges, and Medicare.
  • imposes a new 3.5 percent tax on remittances sent abroad. 
  • forbids spending on legal orientation programs for immigrants and legal services for unaccompanied children. 

→ Click here to access our constituent take action that allows you to write to your members of Congress to oppose this bill. 

Resources for Parolees

We’re updating resources for people with humanitarian parole in multiple languages each week.

Need this resource in another language? Or is there another language you can help translate this resource into? Contact Yael Schacher yschacher@refugeesinternational.org. 

Story Spotlight:

Kim and Kevenson have been friends for nearly a decade. They met in Haiti 7 years ago while Kim was working as a missionary. In 2023, Kim applied for humanitarian parole for Kevenson and his wife Sherlie through CHNV. Today, Kevenson is a proud Texan living and working in Panhandle, Texas. Now their ability to stay in the United States in safety is under threat. 

Watch Kim’s story here. Let Them Stay.

In the Media:

  • Wisconsin Public Radio: Haitian immigrants in Wisconsin Lose Legal Status
  • Documented NY: ‘You Leave with Nothing’: Haitians Face Impossible Choice After Supreme Court Decision
  • Local 10 News South Florida: Republican members of Congress in Florida are concerned that the end of CHNV will hurt South Florida employers 
  • Miami Herald: Haitians, Nicaraguans worry about impact of Supreme Court’s Venezuela TPS ruling,
  • El Paso Times: Trump administration targets immigrants leaving court in El Paso, as ICE arrests increase
  • The Oregonian: Portland, Oregon has also seen an increase in arrests at immigration court, forcing a federal judge to intervene.
  • Boston Globe: Trump’s Deportation Drive Collides With Economic Reality
  • Bloomberg: Immigrants Rebuilt a Pennsylvania Town — Then Became Targets
  • Spectrum News 1 Ohio: Haitian immigrants in Ohio: ‘There is fear’ after court ruling, travel ban

Partner Resources:

Have a story, update, or resource you want included in next month’s Let Them Stay Update? Contact Yael Schacher yschacher@refugeesinternational.org. 

Share this newsletter with your network. Want to subscribe? Contact Eliza Leal at eleal@refugeesinternational.org.

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