By Etant Dupain (Media and Communications Manager, Refugees International)
“Over the past two weeks, the Supreme Court has handed down two separate rulings, mere sentences long, that have deprived hundreds of thousands of people who are living and working in U.S. communities of legal immigration status – laying the groundwork for mass deportations to countries in crisis.
Last week, SCOTUS allowed the Trump administration to terminate temporary protected status (TPS) for 350,000 Venezuelans.
Today, SCOTUS similarly gave a greenlight to the administration to strip humanitarian parole from more than half a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans who arrived through the CHNV parole program – and without requiring that the administration provide any real justification for its position.
As Justice Jackson notes in her dissent today, the majority decision completely disregards the concrete and irreparable harm it causes for CHNV parolees and their communities.
The ruling strips them of their legal permission to live and work in the United States, exposing them to possible detention and deportation.
It will cause chaos and uncertainty for their families, their co-workers and employers, and their communities throughout the United States.
Depriving parolees of legal status and deporting them is not only cruel, wrong, and harmful – it is also deeply unpopular.
Polling Refugees International commissioned in April shows that Americans by wide margins oppose deporting people who arrived legally on humanitarian grounds (such as parole) and are living and working in their communities.
Refugees International will continue to stand with the people who are at risk due to this decision, with the people that have welcomed them, and with the many Americans that oppose this cruel policy.
We urge Congress to step in to provide protection to this population to let them stay.
Congress must also oppose passage of a funding bill that will give the administration a blank check to deport them to harm.”
