BREAKING: Federal Judge Lifts Administrative Pause on Immigration Applications for Parolees of Uniting for Ukraine, Military Parole in Place, CHNV, Family Reunification Parole Programs

On Wednesday, May 28, 2025, a federal judge from the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a nationwide court order lifting the Trump administration’s suspension of adjudications for immigration benefit applications submitted by noncitizens who were lawfully paroled into the United States under certain categorical parole programs implemented during the Biden administration.

Those affected by the suspensions were parolees in the following programs:

Military Parole in Place (MPIP) for members of the U.S. armed forces to petition their relatives for parole
Uniting for Ukraine (U4U), for Ukrainian citizens and their family members to apply for advanced authorization to travel to the United States to request parole for up to two years and apply for employment authorization with USCIS
Noncitizens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) authorizing parole requests of up to two years, and the ability to apply for employment authorization from USCIS
Family Reunification Parole (FRP) programs permitting individuals from Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, and El Salvador to receive advanced authorization to travel to the United States while their family-based immigrant visas are pending.
Central American Minors Program (CAM) for individuals from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala lawfully present in the United States to request immediate relatives not present in the United States to be granted access to the Refugee Admissions Program.

Executive Orders and Government Actions Giving Rise to the Suspension

Following a series of executive orders filed on day one of President Trump’s return to the White House including, “Securing Our Borders,” “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” and “Protecting the United Sates from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memorandum (the Huffman Memorandum) instructing government officials to review all policies pertaining to the parole programs and begin a plan for phasing them out.

Three days later, the Acting Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Jennifer Higgins instructed USCIS officials to stop issuing final decisions (approval, denial, closure), or issuing travel documents or I-94s for any initial parole or re-parole applications, and other benefit requests filed by parolees in the above programs. This prompted a “pause” on the adjudications of immigrant benefits applications filed by individuals receiving parole through the above programs.

Shortly thereafter, USCIS published a notice on its website announcing a pause on the acceptance of the Form I-134A, Online Request to be a Supporter and Declaration of Financial Support, until the agency reviewed all categorical programs pursuant to the President’s executive orders.

The following month on February 14, 2025, the Acting Deputy Director of USCIS, Andrew Davidson, issued a memorandum authorizing an agency-wide administrative hold on all pending status readjustment and immigration benefit requests filed by individuals paroled into the United States under the Uniting for Ukraine, CHNV, and Family Reunification programs, pending additional vetting to identify fraud, public safety, or national security concerns.

The Davidson Memorandum stated in part:

“USCIS will immediately place an administrative hold on all benefit requests filed by aliens who are or were paroled into the United States under the U4U, CHNV, or FRP processes, pending the completion of the required screening and vetting . . . to identify any fraud, public safety, or national security concerns.

Any case subject to this administrative hold with a litigation need may only be lifted from the hold on a case-by-case basis, in a subsequent memo to file, with approval by the USCIS Director or USCIS Deputy Director. This case-by-case requirement must be followed even when aliens are member of a class that is subject to injunction, settlement agreement, or other court order. Once USCIS completes a comprehensive review and evaluation of the in-country population of aliens who are or were paroled into the United States under these categorical parole programs, USCIS may issue a subsequent memo lifting this administrative hold.”

Three months later, the administrative pause on immigration benefit applications filed by the affected parolees had not been lifted. This prompted the filing of a class-action lawsuit against the government requesting emergency relief, including lifting these suspensions.

What does the court order do?

Federal judge Indira Talwani agreed with the plaintiffs and ordered the following suspensions to be lifted, effective May 28, 2025

the suspension of adjudications of re-parole applications filed by individuals who received parole pursuant to the Parole Programs
the suspension of adjudications of initial parole applications filed by individuals already present in the United States pursuant to the Military Parole in Place program and
the suspension of adjudications for applications for immigration benefits filed by individuals who received parole through the Parole Programs

Accordingly, the government can no longer pause the adjudication of re-parole applications filed by individuals in these programs, nor can it pause adjudications for NON-PAROLE related immigration applications filed by individuals who received parole under these programs.

Military Parole in Place

The government is also prohibited from pausing adjudications of initial and re-parole applications filed by individuals who are seeking or have already received parole under the Military Parole in Place program (MPIP). The government is similarly not permitted to pause decisions for immigration benefits filed by individuals paroled through MPIP.

Uniting for Ukraine, Family Reunification Parole, CHNV Parole

Finally, USCIS is prohibited from pausing adjudications for immigration benefit applications filed by individuals who received parole through the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U), Family Reunification Parole (FRP) programs, and the CHNV parole programs for noncitizens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. USCIS officials can no longer place an administrative hold on these applications effectively immediately.

Conclusion

The federal judge’s decision signals a major victory for thousands of noncitizens from Ukraine, Latin America, and other parts of the world, whose applications for immigration benefit requests were wrongfully paused by USCIS without justification. It is estimated that the pause has affected 240,000 Ukrainians and 530,000 CHNV parolees.

“This court emphasizes, as it did in its prior order, that it is not in the public interest to manufacture a circumstance in which hundreds of thousands of individuals will, over the course of several months, become unlawfully present in the country, such that these individuals cannot legally work in their communities or provide for themselves and their families,” the judge wrote in her order.

To read the judge’s court order, please click here.

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