The Trump administration announced Friday that it would end a program that allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to live and work in the United States. Established under President Joe Biden, the initiative offered legal status and work authorization to Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV) who passed security screenings and secured U.S.-based financial sponsors.
Over 500,000 migrants used the program to come to the U.S. legally—suggesting that many people will choose an accessible legal pathway over illegal entry. Getting rid of the CHNV program eliminates that choice for future migrants and penalizes those who came to the country "the right way."
The Biden administration launched the CHNV program in January 2023, building on an October 2022 program open only to Venezuelans. It allowed sponsored and vetted migrants to stay and work in the U.S. for two years under an immigration authority known as "parole." The president may extend that status to migrants for humanitarian or public benefit purposes. Republican and Democratic presidents have leaned on parole over the years, granting it to Hungarian refugees in the 1950s, Chinese immigrants in the 1960s, Soviets in the 1980s, and many others.
