DHS Moves to Accelerate Deportations of Immigrants Brought in Under Biden’s Parole Expansion

U.S. Border Patrol agents prepare to transport illegal immigrants for processing next to the U.S.–Mexico border fence near Sasabe, Ariz., on Jan. 19, 2025. John Moore/Getty Images

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has directed immigration officials to consider fast-tracking deportations of over one million individuals who were allowed to enter the United States temporarily under humanitarian parole programs expanded by the Biden administration.

A memo signed by acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman on Jan. 23 directs Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to reevaluate the parole statuses of approximately 1.4 million immigrants who were allowed to enter the country temporarily.

This includes 531,690 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, who were admitted through the CHNV (Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan) parole program, per U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. It also includes 936,500 individuals who were admitted through the scheduling function of the CBP One app.

Since President Joe Biden was sworn into office in 2021, his administration has used immigration parole at an unprecedented scale.

Biden administration officials have said that expanding the parole programs allowed them to manage migration into the United States in a more orderly way and reduce illegal immigration, while allowing them to respond to crises in a more humanitarian way. Republican leaders have accused the Biden administration of abusing the nation’s parole laws, which they say were designed to be used in a far more limited way.

Both the CHNV parole program and the CBP One app were halted by President Donald Trump after he assumed the presidency on Jan. 20, in line with his campaign pledge to crack down on illegal immigration.

The directives in Huffman’s memo give immigration officials guidance on how to exercise their enforcement discretion in implementing two policies DHS introduced earlier this week. One policy that was outlined in a Jan. 20 memo cited by Huffman authorized DHS components to “pause, modify, or terminate, effective immediately, any parole program”—subject to certain conditions to ensure compliance with the law. The second policy, laid out in a DHS notice filed on Jan. 21, authorizes expedited removal of illegal immigrants who cannot prove at least two years of continuous presence in the United States and who are within 100 miles of the border.

Huffman’s memo instructs DHS components like ICE to review the cases of aliens eligible for expedited removal but not yet placed into the process and “consider, in exercising your enforcement discretion, whether to apply expedited removal.”

“This may include steps to terminate any ongoing removal proceeding and/or any active parole status,” Huffman’s memo states.

The memo also directs immigration officials to review the cases of other aliens who do not meet the above conditions but who have been granted parole under a policy that may be paused, modified, or terminated under the Jan. 20 directive.

“Take all steps necessary to review the alien’s case and consider, in exercising your enforcement discretion, whether any such alien should be placed in removal proceedings,” Huffman notes in the memo.

The moves are part of the president’s pledge to deport individuals residing in the United States illegally.

The DHS policy of fast-tracking removal of illegal immigrants who cannot prove at least two years of continuous presence in the United States and who are within 100 miles of the border has already been challenged in court. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on Jan. 22, asking the court to declare the policy unconstitutional and block its enforcement.