BOSTON (WHDH) – Immigration advocates have filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts challenging the Trump administration’s termination of a key asylum program through the CBP One app. The lawsuit seeks to reinstate parole protections for immigrants who legally entered the U.S. through the app.
The Biden administration launched CBP One to try to streamline immigration processes and prevent illegal border crossings. Migrants seeking asylum used the app to schedule appointments at the southern border. Those who qualified were vetted by Border Patrol agents and granted temporary parole.
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and Democracy Forward filed the suit on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Plaintiffs in the case include the Venezuelan Association for Massachusetts, a Haitian woman living in Massachusetts, a Venezuelan woman living in Ohio, and a Cuban woman living in Texas.
The lawsuit names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as defendants, among others.
Immigration advocates estimate that ending the program affects hundreds of thousands of migrants nationwide.
“These individuals are fleeing life-threatening conditions in their home countries, and followed the exact process that the government requires to be able to come into the United States lawfully,” said Heather Arroyo, a senior immigration attorney at MLRI.
In April, the Trump administration sent out parole termination notices to immigrants who were granted legal status through the CBP One app, telling them to leave the country immediately. A letter provided by MLRI states in part:
“You are currently here because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) paroled you into the United States for a limited period…DHS is now exercising its discretion to terminate your parole…If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject…