The Trump administration last week revoked the legal status for more than 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, ending the program known as humanitarian parole. Now, South Florida lawmakers are sounding the alarms for what they describe could be devastating effects for their communities.
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday that it will shut down the Biden-era humanitarian parole program known as CHNV— an acronym for the four countries enrolled— in late April. More than 531,000 people had been approved to enter the U.S. and stay for up to two years under the program, with Florida receiving 80% of the arriving migrants, according to the current administration.
"Over the previous two years, DHS has implemented programs through which inadmissible aliens who are citizens or nationals of designated countries, and their immediate family members, could request authorization to travel to the United States in order to be considered for parole into the country," the notice said.
But several members of South Florida's congressional delegations are opposing this move, arguing that migrants who came to the U.S. legally— including 75,000 who subsequently filed for asylum— shouldn't be punished, the Miami Herald reports.
"Let's give them the opportunity to apply for the protections they were promised," Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar said in a statement Saturday afternoon.
Salazar, who has supported elements of Trump's immigration crackdown, blamed former President Joe Biden for putting Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans in "legal limbo." But she said Trump should give people affected by the revocation of the program a chance to plead their case to stay.
"Trump is cleaning up Biden's political mess, and the legal limbo the Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans are facing is entirely Biden's fault. He fooled them," said Salazar, whose majority-Hispanic district includes Little Havana. "They came here fleeing failed, communist countries believing in Biden's empty promises. The Trump administration should take this under consideration and not punish them for Biden's mistakes."
U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat that represents a district that includes Little Haiti, North Miami and North Miami Beach, said her office has seen an uptick in the number of calls from immigrants who are "desperate for help" since Trump took office in late January.
"For many years, being sent back isn't just about crossing the border— it's a death sentence," Wilson said. "It means living under brutal dictatorships like in Cuba or facing life-threatening violence like in Haiti. Ending parole overnight isn't just heartless— it's dangerous. It will rip families apart, shatter livelihoods, and change the very fabric of South Florida.
Another Democrat, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents Weston, a city with a large Venezuelan population, said ending the program is unfair to people who came to the United States through a legal pathway.
"They did it the right way. They followed the law," Wasserman Schultz said. "Now, in an instant, Trump yanks their lawful immigration status and hangs the specter of 'disappearing' them out of the country, just like [Venezuela's Nicolas] Maduro or any other out-of-control dictator would be."
DHS told migrants in the programs they have to leave the country by April 24, which is 30 days after the notice is officially published on the Federal Register. Nevertheless, the move is being challenged in court by a group of American citizens and immigrants who are seeking to reinstate the programs for the four nationalities.
The action is "going to cause needless chaos and heartbreak for families and communities across the country," said Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center, one of the organizations that filed the lawsuit at the end of February. She called it "reckless, cruel and counterproductive."
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