Outrage in Caribbean diaspora over Trump’s halt to Haitian and Cuban Parole Program

Caribbean immigration advocates on Thursday strongly condemned President Donald J. Trump’s termination of a parole program for Haitians, Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Thursday that it has begun sending termination notices to over 530,000 of those nationals who were paroled into the US under a Biden-era parole program known as CHNV.

The San Diego, CA-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) said the termination letters go to tens of thousands of Haitian families “who arrived lawfully under the program, built lives, contributed to their communities, and relied on its stability.

“Instead of offering compassion and continued opportunity, DHS has chosen cruelty—revoking legal status, stripping employment authorization, and pushing people to self-deport via an app, with the hollow promise of a US$1,000 incentive,” HBA Executive Director Guerline Jozef told  Caribbean Life.  

“This is not policy — it is punishment,” she added. “It is a calculated move by DHS under Secretary Kristi Noem to dismantle lawful pathways that served both humanitarian and strategic purposes.”

Jozef said the CHNV parole program helped to reduce irregular migration while supporting economic integration, especially for communities fleeing violence, political instability, and natural disasters.

“Now, these same communities are being forced into chaos with no individualized review, no legal recourse, and no due process,” she said. “Over 530,000 people — including thousands of Haitians — built lives here and contributed to our economy under lawful parole. Now, DHS is tearing those lives apart, forcing families into chaos and pushing vulnerable people to self-deport while importing White South Africans under the guise of a genocide that has not been corroborated by no international body or human rights groups.

“We urge Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration bill to legalize those folks,” continued Jozef, calling for an immediate halt to “all termination and deportation notices until fair, case-by-case reviews are conducted.

“We demand the restoration of parole and work authorization for those impacted, a full racial equity review of DHS enforcement practices, and robust congressional oversight to ensure this never happens again,” she said. “Families should not be torn apart by a policy that offers no pathway forward—only fear, confusion and exile.” 

Since the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, Jozef said the French-speaking Caribbean country has “spiraled into one of the gravest humanitarian crises in its modern history.”

She said the political vacuum left in Moïse’s absence has “empowered violent gangs to consolidate power across the country.”

Today, Jozef said about 85 % of Port-au-Prince, the capital, is under the de facto control of heavily armed groups “who operate with near-total impunity.”

Pointing to United Nations data, she said gang violence had displaced more than 1.3 million people in Haiti, led to nearly 5,600 deaths since 2024, and subjected countless civilians to rape, torture, kidnappings, and extrajudicial killings.

“The US has acknowledged the gravity of the crisis and has designated Haiti as a Level 4, Do Not Travel nation for American citizens,” Jozef said.

Given the termination notice for Haitians in the UN, she said HBA “will continue to organize, litigate and speak truth to power.

“No app, no notice, no political decision should override basic human rights and dignity,” Jozef said. “Haitian Bridge Alliance stands in unwavering solidarity with all CHNV parolees and will fight tirelessly to ensure justice is not only promised—but delivered.”

Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York State, said that “Trump is choosing to make hundreds of thousands of people undocumented.

“The decision to take away status from people who entered the United States in the way they were directed to by the federal government is brutal to families, reckless to America’s political stability, and harmful to our communities,” he told Caribbean Life.  

“The abrupt termination of lawful status will destabilize families, take away people’s livelihoods, and force thousands of immigrant New Yorkers into legal limbo,” he added. “Now, with no clear path forward, immigrant families are being ordered to leave the only safe home they have found and the roots they started to build. 

“By stripping immigrants of their legal status, the Trump administration’s immigration policies continue to wreak havoc and chaos within immigrant communities and systematically increase the number of undocumented people–which will not make our communities safer,” Awawdeh continued.

“We call on the federal government to rescind this action, and we call on Congress to create permanent legal pathways to protect our immigrant families,” he urged.

DHS claimed on Thursday that the CHNV Parole Program for Haitians, Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans was “abused by the previous administration to admit hundreds of thousands of poorly vetted illegal aliens into the United States.”

DHS stated that the termination notices to these immigrants informed them that “both their parole is terminated, and their parole-based employment authorization is revoked – effective immediately.

“These notices will be sent to the email addresses provided by the parolees,” it said.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin claimed that “the Biden administration lied to America.

“They allowed more than half a million poorly vetted aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela and their immediate family members to enter the United States through these disastrous parole programs; granted them opportunities to compete for American jobs and undercut American workers; forced career civil servants to promote the programs even when fraud was identified; and then blamed Republicans in Congress for the chaos that ensued and the crime that followed,” she said.

“Ending the CHNV parole programs, as well as the paroles of those who exploited it, will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First,” McLaughlin added.

DHS said that starting in 2022, the Biden administration “released over 500,000 poorly vetted aliens into the US. under the CHNV parole program.

“President Trump canceled this program, and the Supreme Court upheld this cancellation on May 30, 2025,” it said. “DHS is now notifying parole recipients that if they have not obtained lawful status to remain in the US, they must leave immediately.

“DHS encourages any illegal alien residing in the US to self-deport with the CBP Home Mobile App,” the statement added. “If they do so, they will receive travel assistance and a $1,000 exit bonus upon arrival in their home country.”