Calling SCOTUS decision on migrant parole ‘a crime against humanity,’ advocates vow to keep fighting

Just hours after the Supreme Court announced it would allow the Trump administration to revoke legal protections for more than 500,000 immigrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, community advocates and attorneys reeling from the decision held a press call. 

“Without mincing words, it is a sad day,” declared Karen Tumlin, founder and director of the Justice Action Center, as she opened the call. 

The hour-long call, organized by Haitian Bridge Alliance and several legal organizations suing the Trump administration, called the SCOTUS decision “a crime against humanity” and “a mass de-legalization,” statements delivered with choked-up voices and teary eyes. The advocates said the Supreme Court’s decision was based on inflicting cruelty, stress, and trauma, not immigration policy or criminality. The virtual gathering was part discussion, part grieving, and part call to action in the face of an uncertain legal landscape.

They denounced the decision to grant a stay, saying it was rooted in the Supreme Court’s shadow docket rather than legal merit.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, issued a dissent warning of “devastating consequences” to lives and livelihoods. She argued the government failed to show it would suffer irreparable harm if it waited for the legal process to unfold and criticized the Court for overlooking basic equitable principles in favor of policy convenience.

“Court-ordered stays exist to minimize—not maximize—harm,” Jackson wrote, citing the risk of family separations, deportation, and legal limbo for migrants who entered the U.S. under good faith programs.

“This tells us something very disturbing about the willingness of the justices to allow shadow docket stays to be granted, despite the numerically huge impacts on humans, their employers and their loved ones,” Tumlin said.  

The attorneys could offer no clear answers that would alleviate the panic, uncertainty and anxiety the ruling has already triggered in communities across the country, including in the Flatbush neighborhood that thousands of Haitians call home.

“I think it’s heartbreaking because these folks came into the country legally,” said Carine Jocelyn, CEO of Diaspora Community Services, a social support agency in Brooklyn. “They went through a process. They have people supporting them here.

“They become part of who we are as a country, and, certainly for me and New York as a city, the importance of having immigrants as part of our lives here.” 

Legal pathways unclear as panic spreads  

Friday was too early for the attorneys to provide any definitive answers to stem the panic and anxiety the decision triggered in Haitian communities across the country.

In many ways, the virtual meeting mirrored the dizzying effects of the decision, which affects more than 200,000 Haitians who received authorization to enter the United States legally through CHNV between 2023 and 2025. Commonly known as the “Biden Program” by Haitians, the parole process gave much relief to those fleeing Haiti’s sociopolitical unrest.

When first introduced for Haitians in 2023, the CHNV parole program allowed up to 30,000 individuals per month to enter the United States legally, provided they had eligible sponsors who pledged to support them financially and pass security screenings. The program was designed to facilitate lawful entry for those who met specific criteria without relying on public resources. Approved individuals were granted temporary parole for up to two years, with no clear direction on what a path to permanent residency would look like for parolees.

Within the groups of Haitians who arrived via parole, many had applied successfully for other statuses such as temporary protected status (TPS). Their status is now in question. Tens of thousands more Haitians granted TPS after a calamitous 2010 earthquake sent them fleeing to safer lands are also wondering how quickly they may be deported.

“It is a painful day for millions of people, immigrants and citizens alike,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director and founder of Haitian Bridge Alliance.

“Even in the face of adversity, even in the face of cruelty, we will continue [to fight] because we do believe there is strength in unity,” she added. “We still believe in the dream that we, as a country, the United States, will stand on principle, and we’ll find a way to reverse those cruel, inhumane, undignified decisions that have come from the highest court of the land.”

Many Haitians approved under the program had already settled into American communities, enrolled their children in school, secured housing, and started working legally. Without parole protections, they now face possible deportation, the loss of work authorization, and fewer pathways to long-term immigration relief.

Jozef said the Trump administration’s strategy to call this group “illegal” and seek their deportation was inhumane. The court’s decision is like “having the rug pulled from under their feet,” she said Friday.

“What are folks going back to?” Jocelyn asked. “There’s an increase in crime [in Haiti], a fragile government and displacement of people…. Plus, USAID is not there. What’s [deportation] going to look like for many who have not been in Haiti for some time and had to flee with their families?”

For one Haitian street vendor in Flatbush’s Little Haiti, living in fear would not be an option for her after residing in the United States for 36 years. 

“Well, if it were me who was under Biden, I wouldn’t even give them an opportunity to deport me,” she said in Creole to The Haitian Times. 

“I would just buy my ticket and go, ‘cause I don’t like people bothering me, you understand? Just take yourself and go.” 

Additional reporting by Vania André and Macollvie J. Neel.

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