A federal court in Boston has ruled the Trump administration must restore legal status for thousands of immigrants who came to the US on a Biden-era border program.
The Biden-era CBP One program allowed asylum seekers to apply for a fixed number of appointments with immigration officers at a handful of border ports of entry — including the Nogales crossing. Dora Rodriguez, founder of the immigrant aid group Salvavision, says those cleared to come to the U.S. went through a six hour interview at the border to get here.
“To check their background, to check who they were, if they were not criminals, and the ones who had the clear by the Department of Homeland Security, these people were able to continue their case in this country,” Rodriguez said.
Trump ended the program on the first day of his second term, blocking any new applicants from entering the U.S. — including those with appointments that day. Then, last April, the Department of Homeland Security revoked legal status from people already in the U.S. under the program and sent out letters telling them to leave the country.
Rodriguez says people lost their work permits as a result.
“It created a lot, a lot of fatigue, it created a lot of desperation in our families to the point that people started deporting themselves,” she said.
In her ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs said the Trump administration acted illegally by terminating the program without observing its own policy or federal statute.
She says the new ruling is a glimmer of hope for the CBP One families still in Tucson who her group is helping.
-
The ruling comes a day after news broke of the government’s plan to offer legal aid to detained immigrant children through a $150 million contract Burke Law Group — a small Texas-based firm with a co-founder who is a former Trump appointee. -
A notice posted on the Federal Register this week details a $150 million government contract with Burke Law Group to represent unaccompanied immigrant children. A multimillion-dollar contact with nonprofits across the country to do the work expired Friday. -
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is supposed to help people during disasters like floods and fires. But a new report finds the Trump administration diverted FEMA staff at key times to do something very different — help ICE in immigration enforcement. -
The DACA program turned 14 this year. The Obama-era initiative is supposed to give some undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children a work permit and temporary protection from deportation. But community members say that’s no longer the case under President Donald Trump. -
Some 20,000 children alone in the US receive legal aid through the contract — part of a federal program established by Congress almost two decades ago. The contract to do that work expires July 31.
