US appeals court weighs Trump's authority to revoke legal status for thousands of migrants
U.S. Department of Justice attorney Drew Ensign told a three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a lower-court judge had wrongly concluded Noem lacked the discretion to categorically end the immigration "parole" granted to approximately 430,000 migrants by Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, halted the agency's action on April 14, saying Noem could only revoke previously granted parole and work authorizations for migrants on a case-by-case basis.
Ensign argued that was wrong, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's May 30 decision to put Talwani's ruling in favor of a class of migrants on hold pending further appeals, which allowed the parole terminations to take effect.
"As the Supreme Court has already implicitly recognized by a lopsided vote, the government is likely to prevail on appeal, either in this court or, if necessary, in the Supreme Court," he said. "This court should reject the plaintiffs' brazen request to defy the Supreme Court."
The Biden administration, starting in 2022, let Venezuelans who entered the United States by air request a two-year parole if they passed security checks and had a U.S. financial sponsor. Biden expanded that to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in 2023.
Ensign said Noem was legally entitled to categorically end those parole programs, saying she "profoundly disagrees" with the Biden administration's view that they were needed to alleviate pressures at the border and improve the overall immigration system.
All three judges on the 1st Circuit panel were appointed by Democratic presidents. In May, before the Supreme Court acted, the panel declined to halt Talwani's order, saying Noem had not made a strong showing that her categorical termination of early grants of parole would be upheld on appeal.
While liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor publicly dissented in a lengthy opinion, the majority on the nine-member Supreme Court provided no reasoning for why it was staying Talwani's decision.
U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta during Tuesday's argument said that placed him and his 1st Circuit colleagues in an "unusual situation" where they are asked to look to the Supreme Court for guidance on how to proceed and were given only the "bottom line."
But he told Justin Cox, a lawyer for a group of migrants pursuing the class action before Talwani, that the justices' order may indicate they "felt that you're at the short end of the stick on the likelihood of success on the merits."
Cox said the lack of reasoning in the Supreme Court's order was a reason not to defer to it, saying the 1st Circuit "would be speculating if it sought to assign a particular meaning to it."
U.S. Circuit Judge Gustavo Gelpí predicted that even if the 1st Circuit upheld Talwani's decision, the Homeland Security Department could seek to again terminate the migrants' parole status through a new agency action. But Cox said a ruling in the plaintiffs' favor would still be "quite valuable" regardless.
"At a minimum, it would let our clients and the class members have the dignity of leaving on their own terms, as opposed to being subjected to the kinds of removal and detention processes that are happening right now," he said.
The case is Doe v. Noem, 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 25-1384.
For the plaintiffs: Justin Cox of the Law Office of Justin B Cox
For the United States: Drew Ensign of the U.S. Department of Justice
Read more:
US Supreme Court lets Trump revoke humanitarian legal status for migrants
US appeals court rejects Trump bid to revoke thousands of migrants' status
US judge to block Trump from revoking thousands of migrants' legal status
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