Washington, March 22 (RHC)-- The Donald Trump administration has plans to revoke the legal status of potentially more than half-a-million immigrants currently living in the United States.
An order issued on Friday by the Department of Homeland Security, which will be effective on April 24, cuts short a two-year humanitarian “parole" program granted to immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The Trump administration is reportedly considering issuing travel restrictions for the citizens of 41 countries as part of an immigration crackdown launched at the start of the U.S. president’s second term.
The move follows an earlier Trump administration decision to end what it called the "broad abuse" of humanitarian parole, a long-standing legal tool presidents have used to allow people from countries where there's war or political instability to enter and temporarily live in the United States.
A total of 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelan immigrants, who entered the United States in the past three years, are vulnerable to potential deportation around that date.
The Trump administration has also ended a contract that provides legal aid to migrant children entering the country without a parent or guardian, raising concerns that children will now be forced to go through the complex US legal system without help from any grown-up.
Donald Trump has framed his immigration policies as crucial for safeguarding national security. However, these policies have a sharp focus on Hispanic communities.
President Donald Trump had promised on his campaign trail to deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally, and as president, he has also been ending legal pathways for immigrants to enter the U.S. and to stay.
His anti-immigration policy has repeatedly been challenged across the United States by federal judges. The Trump administration is already being sued by a group of American citizens and immigrants for ending the humanitarian parole, seeking to reinstate the program for the four nationalities.
[ SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS ]
