A federal district court in Massachusetts issued a major blow this week to the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, halting the government's effort to mass-revoke legal immigration status for thousands of migrants paroled into the U.S. under the Biden-era CHNV program. The ruling doesn't use the term "nationwide injunction"—but make no mistake, that’s exactly what it is.

The CHNV programs, launched in 2022 and 2023, allowed allegedly vetted individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the United States temporarily under humanitarian parole. After finding "significant" fraud in the program, the Biden administration paused it at the beginning of August 2024 before restarting it at the end of that month. 

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There were some moves made immediately after Donald Trump was sworn in on January 20, then on March 25, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a notice terminating those programs and revoking active parole grants—without individualized review and without giving current recipients a way to contest their removal.

The court ruled that DHS overstepped, violating federal law by treating tens of thousands of valid parolees as if their status could be erased overnight.

What the Court Actually Did

The judge, in an emergency ruling issued April 14, ruled that DHS "likely" acted unlawfully by issuing blanket revocations of lawful parole, rather than reviewing cases individually—as required by statute. DHS had argued it needed to terminate the parole in bulk to facilitate faster removals, but the court rejected that reasoning, saying nothing in the immigration statute permits cutting off parole early without case-by-case review.

The court also said DHS failed to consider how deeply parolees had relied on their status. Many had begun new jobs, enrolled in school, or started asylum processes based on the expectation that their two-year parole would remain valid.

As a result, the judge:

• Blocked DHS from enforcing the March 25 termination policy
• Prohibited any attempt to revoke CHNV work permits tied to that parole
• Barred the government from proceeding with removals based solely on that policy

Why This Is a Setback for the Trump Administration

The ruling cuts directly against a central theme of the Trump administration’s immigration strategy: eliminating discretionary parole programs and ramping up expedited removals. The CHNV programs have long been criticized by immigration hawks, who argue they amount to unlawful mass entry without congressional approval.

BREAKING: A federal judge in Boston has reportedly blocked the Trump administration from revoking the legal status of over half a million migrants who flew into the U.S. via President Biden’s CHNV mass parole program. Biden admin created the program out of thin air using his… https://t.co/PY21f3vLEb

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) April 15, 2025

By halting the rollback of the CHNV parole, the court is preserving a key Biden-era policy—at least for now—and signaling that broad executive power in immigration isn’t without legal limits, even when dealing with individuals the government believes should no longer be here.

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More importantly, the ruling prevents the administration from carrying out the very type of swift mass enforcement it has publicly embraced. The legal process must come first, the court said—and that process requires individualized consideration, not one-size-fits-all termination.

A Nationwide Injunction in All But Name

Interestingly, the court went out of its way to avoid the political landmine of issuing what it called a “nationwide injunction.” Instead, the judge certified a national class—everyone still in the U.S. under CHNV parole—and applied the ruling to that group.

It seems a clever bit of legal footwork. Technically, this is a class-action injunction, not a nationwide one. But the practical result is the same: the government is now barred from applying this policy anywhere in the country, to anyone still covered by the CHNV program. 

That framing likely won’t fool critics.

What Happens Next

Biden's CHNV programs are still likely on the chopping block long-term. The Trump administration has made clear its intent to dismantle most Biden-era immigration policies. But for now, current parole recipients cannot be deported en masse, and their work permits and immigration pathways remain intact.

The government may appeal, and the legal fight over executive authority in immigration is far from over. But the message from this court is clear: even discretionary powers require process, and even politically controversial programs can’t be revoked by fiat—at least, for now.

P.S. About That "Vetting"

Based on the findings of the audit that caused the Biden administration to pause the program, there wasn't much vetting of these individuals going on:

According to the internal agency review, evidence of fraud includes the use of fake Social Security Numbers (SSNs), including SSNs of deceased individuals, and the use of false phone numbers.  Many applications listed the same physical address. In fact, 100 addresses were listed on over 19,000 forms, and many parole applicants applied from a single property (including a mobile park home, warehouse, and storage unit). In addition, many applications were submitted by the same IP address. If this weren’t bad enough, the same exact answers to Form I-134A questions were provided on hundreds of applications – in some instances, the same answer was used by over 10,000 applicants.

The report reveals that the 100 IP addresses accounted for 51,133 of the Form I-134A applications submitted. In one example, an IP address located in Tijuana, Mexico, was used 1,328 times. 

Form I-134A is the sponsor's application. So, 51,133 of them shouldn't have been filled out in Tijuana, and obviously deceased individuals are not able to financially support migrants. It definitely looks like this program has become yet another way for cartels to suck money from vulnerable people who want to get into this country, and undoubtedly there's no real sponsor for those 51,133 applications. It wouldn't be a surprise if we learned that cartels are somehow preventing people who don't use their services to complete an application from being admitted to the program.

It also found that 24 of the 1,000 most used numbers belonged to a dead person. Meanwhile, 100 physical addresses were used between 124 and 739 times on over 19,000 forms. Those addresses included storage units. One sponsor phone number was submitted on over 2,000 forms, and there were 2,839 forms with non-existent sponsor zip codes, according to the leak.

The report was created by the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate to ensure DHS can quickly respond to fraud in immigration benefits programs.

(This article was edited post-publication to include information about the Biden administration's 2024 pause of the program.)