Just after dawn in Massachusetts, a Venezuelan mother refreshed her phone again and again, still bracing for the next message that might tell her to pack up and leave. Months earlier, she had received a notice that began bluntly: “It is time for you to leave the United States. ” Now, a federal judge has ruled that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) overstepped its authority when it terminated the legal status of thousands who entered through a Biden-era program, throwing lives into uncertainty with a single email.
What did the judge rule about the CBP One parole terminations?
On Tuesday, U. S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled that DHS acted unlawfully when it ended the legal status of migrants who entered the United States using the CBP One app under a pathway created during the Biden administration. In her decision, Judge Burroughs wrote that “the parole terminations exceeded the agency’s statutory authority and contradicted the procedures set forth in its own regulations. ”
The ruling restores status nationwide to individuals who received an email, or similar notification, from DHS cancelling their parole. Those notices had told many app users, “It is time for you to leave the United States, ” and warned they could be deported unless they “have otherwise obtained a lawful basis to remain here. ” Work authorizations were also revoked.
How many people are affected, and what does “restore status” mean?
The case centers on a large group: roughly 900, 000 migrants who entered at the southern border using the CBP One app were generally allowed to remain in the United States for two years and given “parole” from immigration laws, which allowed them to work legally.
Restoring status means that people who had their parole cancelled by DHS notices are covered by the judge’s ruling, which returns them to the legal position they held before those terminations. The decision does not guarantee permanent residency for many of those who entered through the program, but it does directly address the abrupt shift the plaintiffs described: going from living in the United States legally to being deemed “illegal aliens” overnight.
Why did DHS end the program function, and what did the lawsuit argue?
From 2023, under Biden, DHS began requiring many asylum seekers to use the CBP One app in an effort to better manage the southern border. The approach created a formal channel for many people seeking an appointment with immigration officials at ports of entry, with the hope of later applying for humanitarian parole or other forms of immigration relief that would allow them to enter the country. Those granted parole could temporarily receive work authorization while their cases were adjudicated.
President Donald Trump’s administration later ended the parole program and began using the app for “self-deportations. ” In one of Trump’s first acts as president, he terminated that function of the CBP app; within hours of Trump taking office, countless applicants waiting at the border were told their appointments had been canceled. DHS subsequently repurposed the app primarily to allow migrants to self-deport, while also urging undocumented people to “self deport, ” or risk detention and deportation.
The Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts and three women impacted by the reversal sued the Trump administration over the policy change. They alleged the termination was unlawful and violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Their filing argued that the loss of the CBP One program meant that people “went from living in the United States legally to being deemed ‘illegal aliens’ overnight. ”
What are people and advocates saying, and what happens next?
For families who had built routines around legal work and the fragile promise of a temporary authorization, the judge’s order carries immediate emotional weight. “For many Venezuelan families, this decision brings long-awaited relief after months of fear and uncertainty, ” said Carlina Velásquez, President of the Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts,.
Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward, one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs, described the decision as a rebuke of rapid, sweeping cancellations. Perryman said the “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. ”
On the government side, DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment in the hours after the ruling. The Trump administration may seek to appeal the decision, and it is likely to do so. The broader political clash remains: at the time the pathway was operating, DHS argued that the Biden administration “abused the parole authority to allow millions of illegal aliens into the US which further fuelled the worst border crisis in US history. ”
For now, the practical impact of Tuesday’s decision is clear: the judge ordered restoration of parole status for people who had it cancelled through those DHS notices. For the mother in Massachusetts, and many others like her, the morning phone refresh now carries a different kind of suspense—whether the government’s next move is an appeal, and how quickly stability can return to lives that were told, in a single line, to leave.
