Three immigrant justice membership organizations - Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), UndocuBlack Network, and CASA - filed this lawsuit on behalf of their members who were granted parole through various humanitarian parole processes, including through the program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (“CHNV Parole”) and through CBP One appointments. The Trump administration, after terminating these parole processes, prematurely revoking grants of CHNV parole, and suspending adjudication of immigration benefit requests for parolees (these actions are being challenged in Svitlana Doe v. Noem) also announced that it would pursue expedited removal of parolees after their periods of parole ended. Expedited removal is a process by which low-level DHS officers can summarily deport certain undocumented noncitizens without an immigration court hearing or any judicial review. Historically, expedited removal has been used only for people in the process of seeking admission at a port of entry or for people encountered in the country a short time after entry and within 100 miles of a land border who had “not been admitted or paroled into the United States.”
Plaintiffs, represented by JAC, CHIRLA, and CASA, challenge the expansion of expedited removal to parolees as unlawful and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Around May 20, 2025, DHS began more aggressively implementing its directives around expedited removal to arrest individuals after their immigration court hearings and subject them to the swift deportation process. Noncitizens would show up to routine court appearances only to be detained after DHS moved to dismiss their cases (or, in some cases, before dismissal was even granted). Individuals who were paroled into the country through a CBP One appointment, including members of Plaintiff organizations, are being subjected to this new practice.
On June 11, 2025, Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint to update the court and filed a motion for a stay of agency action to stop the application of expedited removal to paroled individuals and to prevent the harm caused by the imminent risk of deportation and family separation without due process. On August 1, after receiving briefing from the parties and hearing oral arguments on July 9, 2025 Judge Cobb granted Plaintiffs’ motion, holding that it is unlawful for the federal government to subject parole beneficiaries to expedited removal. The government then sought a stay of the order from the district court, which was subsequently denied on August 13. The government also appealed the stay order. While the D.C. Circuit initially issued a partial administrative stay of the district court’s order, on September 15 it lifted that stay and denied the government’s motion for a stay pending appeal, leaving the district court order in place.
Technical Summary
This case has been related to Make the Road New York v. Huffman, 25-cv-00190 (D.D.C. filed Jan. 22, 2025). Plaintiffs challenge the application of expedited removal to parolees as violating the INA’s provisions on the scope of expedited removal, because they provide that it can only be applied to a noncitizen found inadmissible under 8 U.S.C. §§ 1182(a)(6)(C) or 1182(a)(7) who “is arriving in the United States” or who has not “been admitted or paroled into the United States.” Plaintiffs argue that individuals granted parole through CBP One, CHNV Parole, and other humanitarian parole processes have been paroled into the country, and they are no longer in the act of “arriving,” so they cannot be subject to expedited removal. Plaintiffs bring an associated APA claim based on this statutory violation, and an arbitrary and capricious claim based on the agency’s failure to provide a reasoned explanation for the decisions and inconsistent positions taken by the agency. Plaintiffs allege a violation of the Due Process Clause of the 5th Amendment as well.
Plaintiffs seek declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, and that the relevant memorandums, directives, and notices be vacated.
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