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A memo appears to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to target programs that let in more than a million people.
Jan. 23, 2025, 10:59 p.m. ET
The Trump administration is giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers the power to quickly deport migrants who were allowed into the country temporarily under Biden-era programs, according to an internal government memo obtained by The New York Times.
The memo, signed Thursday night by the acting head of the Homeland Security Department, offers ICE officers a road map on how to use expansive powers that were long reserved only for encounters at the southern border to quickly remove migrants. It also appears to give the officers the ability to expel migrants in two major Biden-era programs that have allowed more than a million people to enter the country temporarily.
Those programs — an app called CBP One that migrants could use to try to schedule appointments to enter the United States, and an initiative that let in certain migrants fleeing Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti — were key pillars of the Biden administration’s efforts to discourage illegal entries by allowing certain legal pathways. Immigrant advocates also worried that the memo could apply to Afghan and Ukrainian immigrants brought to the United States under separate programs.
The decision indicates that President Trump will try to use every facet of the immigration enforcement apparatus to crack down on a system he has long said has been abused, and that he intends to target not just those who sneaked across the border but even those who followed previously authorized pathways to enter.
It is also sure to raise fears among a large class of immigrants, many of whom had fled desperate conditions, believed that they were in the country legally and might be afraid to return to their often-dangerous home countries.
Both of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s signature programs had faced heavy criticism from Republicans, including Trump administration officials, as a way to facilitate illegal immigration through the guise of a government program. The migrants were given a grant to stay in the country for up to two years under a temporary legal status known as “parole.” The memo appears to allow for their deportation, regardless of whether they have reached the end of that legal status or still have time remaining.
