The US Supreme Court granted an application for stay made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday, allowing for the revocation of status for around 500,000 migrants who came through the parole program for Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan nationals.

Justice Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson and Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented on several grounds, including that the government insufficiently demonstrated harm and that the balance of equities “weighs heavily” in favor of the plaintiffs, migrants who were previously paroled. Furthermore, the dissent highlighted that stays are primarily concerned with “an equitable assessment of who will be harmed,” and in this case, DHS has “plainly failed to satisfy its burden of demonstrating irreparable harm.”

The Justice Action Center, one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, published a news release concerning the court’s ruling. The founder and director of Justice Action Center Karen Tumlin stated:

The Supreme Court has effectively greenlit deportation orders for an estimated half a million people, the largest such de-legalization in the modern era. Today’s decision beats the record they set just two weeks ago when they allowed the termination of TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the U.S.

In October 2022, DHS implemented a parole program that allowed Venezuelan nationals who had a sponsor in the US to provide housing and other support and who passed a security screening to be offered “parole at an internal port of entry.” This program was discretionary and given on a case-by-case basis, where, once allowed parole, these individuals could “seek humanitarian relief or other benefits and receive work authorization.” A similar program was introduced in 2023 for Cuban, Haitian, and Nicaraguan nationals.

This lawsuit was prompted by two executive orders issued by President Donald Trump in his first month of office, which related to the parole programs. The first executive order directed the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to “terminate all categorical parole programs that are contrary to the policies of the United States” found in Trump’s other orders. The second order required Secretary Noem to ensure that parole is “exercised on only a case-by-case basis” and “when an individual alien demonstrates urgent humanitarian reasons.” Following Trump’s orders, DHS issued a notice that it is “terminating the categorical parole programs for inadmissible aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.”

In mid-April, Massachusetts District Judge Indira Talwani blocked the termination from taking effect, ruling that the revocation of parole authorization must include a case-by-case review. With the Supreme Court’s ruling, the district court’s order is now suspended until the appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is handed down.