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A federal judge in Boston ordered the Trump administration to reverse the termination of legal status for thousands of migrants who entered the United States through the CBP One app, in a ruling that represents a significant judicial victory for affected Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans.
The court ruling has restored hope for thousands of migrants—including Cubans—who entered the country using the CBP One app during Joe Biden's administration.
The U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs ruled that the Department of Homeland Security acted unlawfully in April 2025 when it sent mass emails to many of the over 900,000 migrants who had entered the country using that application, notifying them that it was "time to leave the United States," reported Reuters.
The email sent by the Department of Homeland Security at that time was clear: "Please leave the United States immediately."
The attorney Skye Perryman, from the legal group Democracy Forward, celebrated the ruling, highlighting that the court rejected the attempt to erase the legal status of hundreds of thousands of people with a single click.
The ruling occurred within the context of a class action lawsuit filed in August by three individuals from Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti and the organization Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts, who argued that the actions of the Trump administration represented a sudden and illegal move to strip immigrants of their parole status and work authorization.
Judge Burroughs noted that the DHS did not meet the requirements when sending those cancellation notices, which required a record demonstrating that an official had determined that the conditions of probation had been fulfilled.
The affected migrants were those who entered with CBP One between May 13, 2023, and January 19, 2025, who generally had received two years of humanitarian parole after using the Biden-era application to schedule an appointment with the Customs and Border Protection and cross the border between Mexico and the United States.
A federal judge had temporarily blocked those measures shortly after the Trump administration began sending out mass cancellation emails.
However, a court of appeals authorized the administration in September of that year to proceed with the cancellations while the case continued its legal course.
The administration also revoked the work permits of the beneficiaries of CBP One, leaving thousands of migrants in a more vulnerable situation. A spokesperson for DHS described the new ruling by Judge Burroughs as "blatant judicial activism" that interferes with President Donald Trump's authority to determine who remains in the country.
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