Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Tuesday whether the Trump administration can deport over 530,000 foreign nationals allowed in under former President Joe Biden. The migrants entered through the CHNV parole program, which granted Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans temporary legal status in the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, appointed by President Obama, blocked Trump’s move to end the program. Leavitt said the administration would continue efforts to deport these individuals, accusing the Biden administration of abusing the parole system.
“There’s this CHNV thing, President Biden let over 530,000 people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti [and] Venezuela into the U.S. with this CHNV program. He did it with the stroke of a pen,” Doocy said. “And now, a judge will not let President Trump undo it with a stroke of a pen. So are you guys going to give all 530,000 plus people individual hearings or are you just going to try to deport them?”
“I spoke to the White House Counsel’s office about this this morning because obviously another rogue district court judge is trying to block the administration’s mass deportation efforts with this latest injunction,” Leavitt said. “We will fight this in the court of law and we will ensure that every individual who illegally entered our country and was really taken advantage of by the previous administration because they abused the parole system in this country to fast track legal status as they said for these illegal immigrants and they completely abused our legal system. Many of these paroled individuals were then given temporary protective status, which the intention of that was only supposed to be used in times of war or storm or destruction in the home countries of these migrants. It was completely abused.”
Judge Talwani ruled that stripping these non-citizens of their status without individual consideration violates the law. She added that the public interest and legal balance favor maintaining their protections for now.
Biden created CHNV in October 2022 for Venezuelans and expanded it in January 2023 to Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans. It offered two-year work and residence permits to those who passed background checks and had not entered illegally.
Republicans argued the program was used to circumvent the worsening crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. Over 200,000 nationals from the four countries were flown in, avoiding the border altogether.
A 2024 report revealed widespread fraud. Investigators found nearly 101,000 CHNV applications tied to just over 3,200 sponsors. Some of the Social Security numbers belonged to deceased individuals, and one Tijuana IP address submitted applications over 1,300 times.
Following the audit, DHS paused the program and announced in October 2024 that parole would not be renewed. Trump formally ended CHNV in March and sent termination notices to its enrollees, who were ordered to leave by April 24 or face deportation.
The administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration has sharply reduced border crossings. In March, Border Patrol reported just 7,180 encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border—the lowest monthly total ever recorded.