A federal judge in Massachusetts tonight temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending protections for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans living in the country who are not U.S. citizens.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said she is concerned that the Trump administration revoked, without case-by-case review, the previously granted protections and work authorizations for thousands of immigrants who relied on the program to continue residing and working in the United States.
She also ordered all revocation notices sent to program participants from the four countries to be put on hold pending further order of the court.
“The court finds that Plaintiffs have standing to challenge the shortening of” their participation in the program,” Talwani wrote in her order. She noted that the plaintiffs were permitted to legally work if they received work authorization and could apply for “adjustment of status or other benefits.”
If their current legal status is allowed to lapse in the next two weeks, Talwani said, they “will be faced with two unfavorable options: continue following the law and leave the country on their own, or await removal proceedings.”
The programs, when it was at full force, allowed for up to 24,000 people to participate for a temporary period of up to two years, during which they can seek humanitarian relief or other benefits and receive work authorization.
As Talwani wrote in her order, the program specified further that those “who are not granted asylum or other immigration benefits will need to leave the United States at the expiration of their authorized period … or will generally be placed in removal proceedings.”
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