How Selective Deportations Reveal a Fundamental Shift in Trump’s Immigration Strategy

The White House has recently revoked the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who had obtained Temporary Protected Status (TPS), claiming that some of them threaten US national security.

The legal protection allows people from troubled countries, such as Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Ukraine, to live and work legally in the United States provided they pass a security screening and find a financial sponsor.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official said the program is disastrous, adding that ending parole programs is a return to common-sense politics, a return to public safety, and a return to ‘America First’.

 Previous Trump administration moves setting up efforts to curtail parole programs under Biden have faced court challenges, and a class-action lawsuit was filed last month urging a court to block the termination of parole programs.

Throughout his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump has accused the Biden administration of inappropriately expanding eligibility for parole programs as it deals with the large number of immigrants arriving at the southern border.

Parole Program

The administration of US President Donald Trump announced last week that it was terminating the legal status of more than half a million immigrants from Latin America, giving them a few weeks to leave the country.

The decision will affect approximately 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans who came to the U.S. under a parole program launched by former President Joe Biden in October 2022 and expanded in January 2023.

The parole program allowed up to 30,000 immigrants per month from the four countries with dismal human rights records to enter the U.S. for two years.

Biden at the time viewed the plan as a safe and humane way to relieve pressure on the crowded US-Mexico border.

However, since returning to office, Trump has launched a broad attack on immigration, as he promised during his campaign.

On her part, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a federal document that her department's termination of the parole program directly fulfills Trump's order, underscoring the administration's shift to a foreign policy that prioritizes U.S. interests within secure borders.

“This program does not provide a significant public benefit, is not necessary to reduce levels of illegal immigration, has not adequately mitigated the domestic impacts of illegal immigration, and is inconsistent with the administration's foreign policy objectives,” the document stated.

The Department of Homeland Security stated on March 21 that immigrants covered by the program must depart the U.S. by April 24 unless they obtain another immigration status that allows them to remain in the country.

The department will deport people who entered the U.S. under this program and who do not leave the country before the expiration of their parole period.

However, immigrants who have since obtained lawful immigration status or another basis for remaining in the U.S. are not required to leave the country under this notice.

Legal Protection

Immediately after the Trump administration announced its decision to end parole programs, immigrant rights advocates expressed their dismay and concerns.

WelcomeUS, an organization that supports asylum seekers in the U.S. affected by this decision, urged them to seek immediate advice from an immigration attorney.

California-based immigration attorney Nicolette Glazer estimated that the decision would affect the vast majority of the half a million immigrants who entered the U.S. under the parole program enacted by Biden three years ago.

She explained that only 75,000 asylum applications have been accepted, so the vast majority of those granted parole under this program will be without legal status, without work permits, and subject to deportation, warning of the chaos this decision could cause.

Immigration rights advocates have asked a federal judge in San Francisco to delay two Department of Homeland Security (DHS) decisions that would bar Venezuelan immigrants from remaining in the U.S. under the TPS program.

The San Francisco case is one of more than a dozen aimed at curbing Trump's efforts to expel millions of immigrants from the U.S., at a time when federal immigration officials have intensified their efforts to deport undocumented immigrants.

However, the measures taken by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem last month will expire for some Venezuelans, putting approximately 350,000 of them at risk of deportation in early April, and hundreds of thousands more over the next month.

Cuba has accepted one deportation flight per month, and Haiti has accepted many deportation flights, while Venezuela and Nicaragua have refused to accept any flights.

An immigrant advocacy organization and a group of Venezuelans with TPS have asked a California judge to postpone Secretary Noem's decisions until the court hears their case. 

They argue that Secretary Noem violated administrative procedures and acted with racial bias and discrimination in revoking extensions of protection granted during the presidency of former President Joe Biden.

But federal officials rejected the allegations, arguing that Secretary Noem's justification for not allowing these individuals to remain in the country was not based on racial bias, but rather on protecting the national interest of the U.S.

As the Trump administration sought to justify deportation flights to El Salvador, Secretary Noem argued that members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang were among the Venezuelan citizens who crossed the border in recent years.

The lawsuit filed in California, along with others in Massachusetts and Maryland, adds further obstacles to the Trump administration's efforts to end key parts of the legal protections passed by Congress and signed into law by former President George H.W. Bush, allowing the admission of immigrants from certain countries experiencing disasters, conflicts, or instability.

Venezuelans constitute the largest group of TPS holders in the U.S., numbering approximately 600,000 people who, like millions of others, fled the rule of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Also, approximately 500,000 Haitians are now eligible for TPS after the assassination of their president in Haiti in 2021, which led to the collapse of the government and the deaths of thousands of people at the hands of gangs controlling much of the country.

Some Haitian immigrants have received this protection since 2010, when the Obama administration first extended it to Haitian citizens following the 2010 earthquake.

Constitutional Showdown

Since Trump took office, federal agents have made more than 30,000 arrests of people living in the country illegally, often in coordination with Justice Department agencies. 

While officials say enforcement targets serious offenders, some arrests have involved people whose only violation is lacking legal immigration status.

A Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted last month found overwhelming support among Americans for deporting those accused of violent crimes, with a large majority also supporting deporting those accused of nonviolent crimes.

In contrast, when Americans are asked about deporting immigrants who have committed no crimes other than immigration violations and entered the country without authorization, support for deportations declines, especially if they have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years.

Testing the limits of his legality, Trump recently issued an executive order announcing plans to use the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 to expel 238 Venezuelans, the youngest of whom was 14 years old, on suspicion of links to the Tren de Aragua gang.

Despite Judge James Boasberg of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., issuing an injunction preventing the administration from using this law to deport the immigrants, U.S. authorities deported them to El Salvador, where they will spend at least a year in prison.

The power struggle has led to a constitutional showdown over whether U.S. judges have the authority to restrict the president's use of laws like the Alien Enemy Act to expedite deportations.

White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt defended the deportation order, saying in an unusual statement that the courts have no jurisdiction over the president's conduct in foreign affairs.

She added that Judge Boasberg's orders were issued after migrants had already been removed from the U.S.

This dispute has raised concerns that Trump is expanding executive power at the expense of the federal judiciary, which under the US Constitution is an equal branch of government.

In February, the Trump administration also rescinded an 18-month extension of the TPS program for Venezuelans, which was approved before Biden left office.

It later partially rescinded another 18-month extension for Haitians, while officials have not indicated whether they will end the program altogether.

It's worth noting that on his first day in office, Trump directed his administration to terminate all temporary immigration programs that conflict with U.S. policy.

However, his administration's new hardline approach reflects a fundamental shift in Trump's immigration strategy, as he seeks to demonstrate progress toward fulfilling his campaign promise to deport millions.

Activists argue that an immigrant's legal status no longer matters much, noting that the Trump administration currently arrests individuals of all immigration statuses—whether undocumented, legal visa holders, or permanent residents—and then initiates deportation proceedings.

Trump had promised the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, targeting all immigrants who entered the country without legal authorization, not just those who committed serious crimes.

However, fulfilling this promise would mean deporting 11 to 12 million people, most of whom have been residents for more than a decade.