A group of American citizens and immigrants is suing the Trump administration for ending a long-standing legal tool presidents have used to allow people from countries where there’s war or political instability to enter and temporarily live in the US.
The lawsuit filed late on Friday night seeks to reinstate humanitarian parole programmes that allowed in 875,000 migrants from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who have legal US resident as sponsors.
President Donald Trump has been ending legal pathways for immigrants to come to the US and implementing campaign promises to deport millions of people who are in the US illegally.
The plaintiffs include eight immigrants who entered the US legally before the Trump administration ended what it called the “broad abuse” of humanitarian parole. They can legally stay in the US until their parole expires, but the administration stopped processing their applications for asylum, visas and other requests that might allow them to remain longer.
None are identified by their real names because they fear deportation. Among them are Maksym and Maria Doe, a Ukrainian couple; Alejandro Doe, who fled Nicaragua following the abduction and torture of his father; and Omar Doe, who worked for more than 18 years with the US military in his home country of Afghanistan.
“They didn’t do anything illegal. They followed the rules,” Kyle Varner, a 40-year-old doctor and real estate investor from Spokane, Washington, who sponsored 79 Venezuelans and is part of the lawsuit, told journalists. “They have done nothing but work as hard as they can. … This is just such a grave injustice.”
