The Trump Administration cancels family reunification for temporary residents from seven Latin American countries

(AFP) The United States announced Friday the end of family reunification programs for citizens of Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras who have temporary residency permits, known as "parole."

"This administration is ending the abuse of humanitarian parole that allowed insufficiently screened aliens to bypass the traditional process" of applying for reunification, which allows them to bring family members to live in the country, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in a statement.

The temporary stay permits or parole "were not intended to be used in this manner, and DHS moves to reinstate the permit on a case-by-case evaluation, as mandated by Congress," the text added.

The Donald Trump administration revoked the temporary resident status of 532,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela in March.

That suspension, contested in court, ended up before the Supreme Court, which ratified that the government could take this measure on an interim basis while the merits of the controversy were being resolved by lower courts.

This new step represents a direct cancellation of the right to family reunification for citizens of these seven countries.

"The desire to reunite families does not outweigh the government's responsibility to prevent fraud and abuse and to protect national security and public safety" DHS justified.

It added that lfamily reunification processes under parole (FRP) "presented security gaps" because of "insufficient verification" that were exploited by "malicious and fraudulent actors."

The FRP programs dedicated to Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduraswere implemented in 2023, under the presidency of Democrat Joe Biden.

While those for Cuba and Haiti dated respectively from 2007 and 2014, and were updated in August 2023.

"Parole is by definition temporary, and by itself doesnot constitute a basis for obtaining any immigration status, nor does it amount to admission to the United States" DHS stressed.

Trump campaigned promising to deport millions of undocumented migrants and has put the entire machinery of the administration at the service of this goal.

The DHS congratulated itself this week on having achieved the departure from the country of more than 2.5 million illegal immigrants, between forced deportations (605,000) and nearly 1.9 million voluntary departures.