Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration
Chhabed Sathee: President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration has reportedly resulted in the deportation of over 675,000 people since he returned to office in January 2025.
However, a new ruling from a federal judge in a 2025 class action lawsuit finds that many of those deportations might have been illegal. According to a March 31 ruling from U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security broke its own laws by stripping the immigration status of over 900,000 migrants who followed entry guidelines through a Biden-era parole program and its CBP One app.
The program allowed migrants, largely asylum seekers, to schedule vetting interviews at U.S.-Mexico border ports of entry. After federal immigration officials approved these migrants for entry, they were allowed into the U.S. to await pending asylum hearings.
"Starting in May 2023, CBP One became the primary method by which asylum seekers could enter the United States at ports of entry through the end of the Biden administration," the American Immigration Council wrote in a March 2025 report. "However, upon taking office, the Trump administration immediately ended the use of CBP One for purposes of processing asylum seekers." The Trump Administration officially canceled the CBP One program in April 2025, sending emails to the affected migrants to notify them that their status had been revoked. The emails urged migrants to exit the U.S. "immediately." Plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit estimated that "over 900,000 individuals" who followed U.S. entry guidelines had their paroles illegally terminated under the Trump administration. In her ruling, Burroughs stated that when DHS "terminated the impacted noncitizens' parole without observing the process mandated by statute and by their own regulations, they took action that was 'not in accordance with law.'"
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In a statement to NPR, DHS defended its move to revoke parole and called the ruling "blatant judicial activism."
"Under federal law, DHS had full authority to revoke parole. Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect our national security," the department told NPR in an April 1 report.
The landmark ruling sets up a potential legal pathway for affected migrants to challenge or reverse their parole terminations, as Burroughs states that "the Court must 'hold (the terminations) unlawful and set (them) aside.'" The judge's order applies to migrants who entered the U.S. through the CBP One app from May 16, 2023, to Jan. 19, 2025. This means that roughly 900,000 people could have their legal status restored - and that they could be temporarily protected from deportation. According to Democracy Forward's Skye Perryman, president of the organization representing the plaintiffs, the ruling comes as a long-awaited relief.
"Our clients followed the law: they waited, registered, were inspected, and were granted parole under the law," she said in a statement announcing the ruling, NPR reported. "The Trump-Vance administration's effort to tear this status away overnight was unlawful and cruel."
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