The administration went to the Supreme Court on Thursday to demand the justices reverse a “destabilizing trend” from lower courts that have rushed to meddle in the president’s immigration policies.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the high court to affirm Mr. Trump’s broad authority to enforce immigration laws and rebuke the judges standing in his way.
The specific case involves Homeland Security’s attempt to wind down a legally iffy “parole” program created by the Biden administration that granted tentative legal status to 532,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, leading to the acronym CHNV, inviting them into the U.S. even though they lacked legal visas to come.
A federal district judge in Massachusetts said the administration went too far when it canceled parole for all of those migrants. But Mr. Sauer said the judge should never have been involved in the case.
“This court should put an end to the recent, destabilizing trend in [Immigration and Nationality Act] cases and stay the district court’s order in full,” he told the justices.
The CHNV program was one of several major avenues of parole created by President Joe Biden that helped usher in millions of unauthorized migrants. The theory was to give would-be illegal immigrants a chance to apply for U.S.-based sponsors and fly directly into airports in the interior, relieving some of the burden on an overworked Border Patrol.
The program proved rife with fraud. Sponsorships were being sold for thousands of dollars, and one application even used Michelle Obama’s passport number.
Trump officials said the program also proved to be a bad tradeoff, leaving the U.S. with hundreds of thousands of otherwise illegal immigrants who would be difficult to roust when their two-year parole periods were up.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revoked parole for all 532,000 CHNV participants in late March.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee to the court in Massachusetts, blasted the move in a ruling last month. She said under the law, parole can be granted only on a case-by-case basis, so it must also be revoked on a case-by-case basis and can’t be a categorical end for all 532,000 beneficiaries.
“Instead, the early termination, without any case-by-case justification, of legal status for noncitizens who have complied with DHS programs and entered the country lawfully undermines the rule of law,” she said.
Mr. Sauer, in his petition to the Supreme Court on Thursday, said the Biden program granted parole categorically, so it made sense for the Trump administration to erase it categorically.
He also said under the law, the secretary is granted wide-ranging powers to decide, and courts should butt out of those decisions.
“The district court’s order stymies the government’s ability to terminate parole grants that the secretary has determined undermine U.S. interests, and thus it inhibits the government’s pursuit of its foreign policy goals,” he said.
The case is the latest in a string of requests by the Trump team to the high court to affirm the president’s executive powers.
Cases involving spending pauses, firing of federal officers, a ban on transgender troops and an attempt to limit birthright citizenship have also been rushed to the justices.
