DHS Terminates Humanitarian Parole Program for Cuban, Nicaraguan, Haitian, and Venezuelan Nationals

The US Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) announced the termination of  the humanitarian parole program initiated by the Biden administration in 2023 which allowed approximately 532 thousand migrants escaping political and economic upheaval in Cuban, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuelan to travel and live in the US lawfully under certain conditions. Known as the CHNV Parole Programs (“CHNV”), DHS has terminated the programs as of March 25, 2025, and beneficiaries are set to lose their legal status on April 24, or 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register.

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The First Two Weeks in Office: Trump’s Anti-immigration Actions

President Donald J. Trump’s first day in office on January 20th, 2025, was sealed by his passing forty-six presidential actions in line with “President Trump’s America First Priorities”. Keeping in line with his campaign promises to eliminate illegal immigration many of his executive orders are targeted at immigration. A few hours into his second term President Trump suspended US asylum, along with refugee, and other humanitarian programs. He also increased security screening of all foreign nationals seeking entry to the US and continued with his campaign to limit birthright citizenship. Let’s examine a few of Trump’s mandates that affect our communities.

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Is the Grass Really Greener?

Asylum seekers have fled dangerous conditions in their homeland; as distinguished poet Warsan Shire wrote “no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark”. Unfortunately, many asylum seekers currently in the US are finding themselves in dire circumstances in our country as our asylum process is under severe stress from the record high encounters reported at the US – Mexico border. The depths of the bureaucracy involved in the asylum process lead many asylees to question their decision to flee the mouth of a shark, as they find themselves trying to stay afloat in shark infested waters.

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Venezuelan Exodus: In Search of Livelihoods

Imagine yourself a citizen of a country that has been under an authoritarian regime for the past twenty-three years. You and your family are in a state of food insecurity, violence, and medicinal shortages driven by decades of political turmoil. Would you leave everything behind, risk your life, and perhaps your loved ones’ lives, in search of a better life you may have only seen on television or films? Millions of Venezuelans have had to make this arduous decision and consequently fled their homes due to political persecution, loss of livelihoods, lack of food, medicine, and other basic necessities. Since 2015 more than 7.1 million people have fled Venezuela. The dictatorial government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and his predecessor Hugo Chavez, have turned a country once considered the richest in Latin American, due to its housing the largest oil reserves in the world, into a “narco state” where citizens are forced to live with soaring expenses, limited job opportunities, and minimal political freedoms. Maduro’s government is not recognized by the US government and therefore migrants at the US border cannot be deported back to Venezuela. The idea of reaching the land of the free has prompted thousands of Venezuelans to risk their lives by making a 6,000 mile journey into the unknown. In fiscal year 2022, an unprecedented 188,000 Venezuelans have presented themselves at the US southern border.

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