Trump administration to revoke legal status of 530,000 Latin American migrants

The Donald Trump administration has announced plans to revoke the temporary legal status of over 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

According to a notice on Friday by the US department of homeland security, the migrants have been warned to “leave the country before their permits and deportation shield are cancelled on April 24”.

The migrants were brought into the US under the former President Joe Biden sponsorship process known as CHNV.

The CHNV program was launched in 2022 initially covering Venezuelans before expanding to other countries.

The program enabled migrants and their immediate family members to enter the US with American sponsors and remain for two years under temporary immigration status.

The Biden administration had said the CHNV would help reduce illegal border crossings and facilitate better vetting of migrants.

But in Friday, the US department of homeland security rebuked the previous administration, stating that the program failed to achieve its objectives.

The agency criticised the Biden administration for “granting opportunities to compete for American jobs and undercut American workers” and “forcing career civil servants to promote the programs even when fraud was identified”.

But the 35-page notice added that some migrants may be allowed to remain in the US on a “case-by-case basis”.