A federal district court in Massachusetts issued a major blow this week to the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, halting the government's effort to mass-revoke legal immigration status for thousands of migrants paroled into the U.S. under the Biden-era CHNV program. The ruling doesn't use the term "nationwide injunction"—but make no mistake, that’s exactly what it is.

The CHNV programs, launched in 2022 and 2023, allowed vetted individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the United States temporarily under humanitarian parole. But on March 25, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a notice terminating those programs and revoking active parole grants—without individualized review and without giving current recipients a way to contest their removal.

The court ruled that DHS overstepped, violating federal law by treating tens of thousands of valid parolees as if their status could be erased overnight.

The judge, in an emergency ruling issued April 14, ruled that DHS "likely" acted unlawfully by issuing blanket revocations of lawful parole, rather than reviewing cases individually—as required by statute. DHS had argued it needed to terminate the parole in bulk to facilitate faster removals, but the court rejected that reasoning, saying nothing in the immigration statute permits cutting off parole early without case-by-case review.

The court also said DHS failed to consider how deeply parolees had relied on their status. Many had begun new jobs, enrolled in school, or started asylum processes based on the expectation that their two-year parole would remain valid.

As a result, the judge:

The ruling cuts directly against a central theme of the Trump administration’s immigration strategy: eliminating discretionary parole programs and ramping up expedited removals. The CHNV programs have long been criticized by immigration hawks, who argue they amount to unlawful mass entry without congressional approval.

By halting the rollback of the CHNV parole, the court is preserving a key Biden-era policy—at least for now—and signaling that broad executive power in immigration isn’t without legal limits, even when dealing with individuals the government believes should no longer be here.

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More importantly, the ruling prevents the administration from carrying out the very type of swift mass enforcement it has publicly embraced. The legal process must come first, the court said—and that process requires individualized consideration, not one-size-fits-all termination.

Interestingly, the court went out of its way to avoid the political landmine of issuing what it called a “nationwide injunction.” Instead, the judge certified a national class—everyone still in the U.S. under CHNV parole—and applied the ruling to that group.

It seems a clever bit of legal footwork. Technically, this is a class-action injunction, not a nationwide one. But the practical result is the same: the government is now barred from applying this policy anywhere in the country, to anyone still covered by the CHNV program. 

That framing likely won’t fool critics.

Biden's CHNV programs are still likely on the chopping block long-term. The Trump administration has made clear its intent to dismantle most Biden-era immigration policies. But for now, current parole recipients cannot be deported en masse, and their work permits and immigration pathways remain intact.

The government may appeal, and the legal fight over executive authority in immigration is far from over. But the message from this court is clear: even discretionary powers require process, and even politically controversial programs can’t be revoked by fiat—at least, for now.