A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The legal status of nearly one and a half million immigrants in the U.S. is in jeopardy. That's because President Trump ended multiple Biden-era programs that granted migrants a temporary stay in the country under what's called humanitarian parole. Now, Trump has empowered officials to quickly remove these migrants, many of whom fled war or political oppression. NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán has our story.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Reginald Daniel and his son Tristan left Haiti about a year ago. Like many others, he says he came because gang violence in Haiti had become unbearable.
REGINALD DANIEL: Back then, I got shot. You know, I got shot in my forehead, and they tried to kidnap my sons before.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: So it was a welcome relief when, in 2023, President Biden created a humanitarian parole program known as CHNV, specifically for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. It allowed people fleeing those four countries to fly into the U.S. if they cleared a security background check and had a sponsor. Anne-Valerie Laveus is Daniel's sister and his sponsor. She says the parole was a saving grace sent by God for her family. She's a woman of faith and says she's praying for the program to continue.
ANNE-VALERIE LAVEUS: And so I know God is a God of order, and He never does anything out of order. So I'm believing that my family is going to have an opportunity to stay together.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: But President Trump has other plans. Hours after he took office, he ordered the termination of all parole programs, including the one her brother used to come into the U.S. Trump also shut down CBP One, a mobile app used by asylum-seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border to schedule an appointment at a port of entry. More than 936,000 people were legally allowed in the country this way since 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The parole allows them to work while they await their immigration hearing. Dan Stein supports Trump's changes. He's the president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. He claims Biden-era humanitarian parole was badly abused.
DAN STEIN: These things were originally designed to allow people to have protection, temporary protection, to work maybe for positive political change back home until it was safe to go back. And instead, they'd just become backdoor immigration programs.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Now Trump has empowered immigration officers to quickly remove those who came via the parole programs. Yasmelin Velazquez is one of the people at risk of removal. She came to the U.S. from Venezuela with her two children after waiting for eight months for a CBP One appointment. Velazquez says she now feels scared and vulnerable.
YASMELIN VALAZQUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: "I came in the legal way," she says. "But now I feel like I'm being treated like someone who crossed the Rio Grande illegally." In the meantime, she says she'll continue her job cleaning homes, but she's hoping to get a job at Chipotle. Meanwhile, Laveus, the Haitian woman, says she wants her nephew to keep experiencing something he didn't have in Haiti - a feeling of safety.
LAVEUS: And it's so amazing to watch because when he first came a year ago, he was so shy, so withdrawn. Now he's getting acclimated. He went to get his hair done. It's 30 minutes on a bicycle, even more. And he rode in the middle of the streets to do his hair.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: A simple activity he never got to do in his home country, and one only possible thanks to the humanitarian parole program that's now ending.
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, NPR News, Austin. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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