Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is aiming to kick out more than half a million immigrants who came to the US legally, another expansion of the administration’s effort to remove as many foreign nationals as it can.
What’s the latest? The administration today is sending emails notifying certain immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela that they are no longer allowed to legally live and work in the US, CNN reports.
Who are these immigrants? The foreign nationals are here under a Biden-era “humanitarian parole” program. The program was aimed at deterring illegal border crossings, instead allowing entry and temporary legal residence to migrants who made their case to US authorities, passed security vetting, and had an American sponsor. It’s not clear how many people received the administration’s notice to leave, but the program is estimated to affect about 530,000 people from the four countries.
Can Trump do that? The Supreme Court said last month that the administration could suspend the Biden-era program, even as attempts to protect it work their way through lower courts. The outcome of those suits is yet to be determined, but even if the courts eventually rule that the administration broke the law and has to reinstate the program, it will be too late for many of the migrants it was meant to help.
What’s the big picture? From a US perspective, the program gave authorities a better idea of who was entering the country while also adding new workers to an economy that — as Donald Trump acknowledged today — benefits from them. For migrants, humanitarian parole helped people escape desperate situations in pursuit of better lives. But the Trump administration treats immigrants like a blight, so now the program is ending.
