Federal judge temporarily blocks DHS termination of Family Reunification Parole programs over notice concerns

A Massachusetts federal judge on Saturday temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) planned termination of Family Reunification Parole (FRP) programs for migrants from seven countries, ruling the agency likely failed to give individuals proper notice before stripping their legal status.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said in a five-page order that an emergency stay was warranted and granted a 14-day temporary restraining order blocking the termination of multiple country-specific FRP programs.

FRP allows certain relatives of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents to enter the United States temporarily while they wait for an immigrant visa, a process that can take years.

DHS said in December that it was terminating all FRP programs for migrants from Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras, and their immediate family members.

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"This administration is ending the abuse of humanitarian parole which allowed poorly vetted aliens to circumvent the traditional parole process. Parole was never intended to be used in this way, and DHS is returning parole to a case-by-case basis as intended by Congress. Ending the FRP programs is a necessary return to common-sense policies and a return to America First," read a press release from the agency.

DHS said it would provide individual notice to parole recipients, informing them that their parole and related work authorization were being terminated.

It noted that the terminations, set to take effect Jan. 14, would not apply to parole recipients who had filed a Form I-485, an application for permanent residency, by Dec. 15, 2025, and whose applications remain pending.

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Talwani wrote that DHS likely failed to provide the individualized written notice required before ending recipients’ status, finding little evidence that people were actually notified through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) online accounts or by mail.

"The Federal Register Notice opined that ‘all FRP parolees under the modernized programs should have a USCIS online account’ and that ‘DHS will . . . provide individual notice to each parolee through their USCIS online account,’" the federal judge explained.

"But nothing in the record before the court suggests that most, let alone all, parolees do in fact have such accounts or when notice via such accounts was provided to the parolees."

Talwani ordered DHS to produce records explaining its decision by Jan. 13. She then set an expedited schedule for the government to file its legal response by Jan. 15, with plaintiffs given until Jan. 20 to reply.