White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed “rogue” judges during a press briefing Tuesday after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from revoking the legal status and work permits of more than 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
On Tuesday, Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Peter Doocy asked Leavitt why President Joe Biden was allowed to establish the program “with the stroke of a pen” but Trump was being stopped from ending CHNV the way it started.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., April 15, 2025. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)
“I spoke to White House counsel’s office about this this morning because, obviously, another rogue district court judge is trying to block the administration’s mass deportation efforts with this latest injunction,” Leavitt said. She also slammed the Biden administration, accusing former officials of abusing the U.S. parole system “to fast-track legal status” for illegal immigrants.
JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP FROM REVOKING LEGAL STATUS FOR 530,000+ MIGRANTS WHO FLEW INTO US VIA BIDEN PROGRAM
“We will continue to focus on deporting as many individuals as we can,” Leavitt added.
Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, wrote in her order blocking the Trump administration that each of the more than 530,000 migrants needed to have an individualized case-by-case review.
Venezuelan migrants arrive in Caracas, Venezuela, on a flight after being deported from the United States March 24, 2025. (Reuters/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)
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Officials with the Department of Homeland Security and the Trump administration said Talwani’s ruling essentially prohibits Trump from using his own executive authority to revoke parole that Biden granted when he was in office.
“It is pure lawless tyranny,” a Trump administration official told Fox News.
President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., Sept. 15, 2023. (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Under a Biden-era program known as CHNV, migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela were allowed to enter the U.S. via humanitarian parole after receiving advance travel authorization. The program permitted up to 30,000 nationals per month to enter the country.
Republicans opposed the program and urged the Biden administration to shut it down. Several House lawmakers signed a letter at the time to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, calling for an end to CHNV as the U.S. faced “an unprecedented crisis” at its southern border.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion and Louis Casiano and Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
