A US federal judge blocked the initiative of the Trump Administration to revoke the legal status of more than 8,400 family members of US citizens and permanent residents, including Cubans, who arrived in the country from seven Latin American nations.
The decision was made by federal judge Indira Talwani, of the Boston district, who considered that the government measure was arbitrary and lacked sufficient justification. referred Reuters.
Talwani issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from ending the humanitarian permit granted to people from CubaHaiti, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as stated in the court ruling released this weekend.
The federal judge noted that DHS did not present evidence to support its fraud arguments nor adequately evaluate the impact of the measure on affected families.
Many of these families sold their homes or abandoned their jobs in their countries of origin when they took advantage of the family reunification programs promoted or expanded during the Joe Biden Administration, according to case documents.
The United States cancels family reunification programs for Cuba and six other countries
Trump’s measure would have affected thousands of Cubans
In her resolution, the judge stressed that the Trump Administration did not offer a “reasoned explanation” for the change in policy and described the agency’s actions as “arbitrary and capricious”an expression included verbatim in the court order.
Talwani also recalled that the Department of Homeland Security, currently headed by Kristi Noem, also did not analyze whether the return of these people to their countries was viable under current conditions.
DHS had announced on December 12 its intention to end the programsarguing that they were incompatible with President Trump’s immigration priorities and that they were used to allow the entry of foreigners “without due investigation.”
According to Reutersthe measure was to come into force on January 14, but Talwani had already imposed a temporary restraining order while evaluating the merits of the case.
The resolution comes amid the tightening of immigration policy after Trump’s arrival at the White House, with a historic budget of 170 billion dollars allocated to immigration agencies until September 2029, according to official figures from the Government itself.
The lawsuit was filed as a collective action by organizations defending the rights of immigrantswhich question the US Executive’s attempt to broadly reduce humanitarian parole programs.
Judge Talwani had previously ruled against similar government measures, although some of those decisions were later overturned by higher courts. This could also happen this time if the Trump Administration decides to litigate the matter in other instances.
So far, the Department of Homeland Security had not responded to requests for comment on this new court ruling.
