Migrants’ Legal Limbo

Summary

What A Day Podcast Summary Episode: “Migrants’ Legal Limbo”
Release Date: June 3, 2025
Host: Jane Coston | Produced by Crooked Media

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Introduction to Legal Challenges for Migrants

In the June 3rd episode of What A Day, host Jane Coston delves into the recent Supreme Court decisions that have significantly impacted the legal status of approximately half a million migrants residing in the United States. These decisions pertain to the termination of deportation protections under two key programs: Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Humanitarian Parole (CHNV).

Key Points:

• Supreme Court Rulings: The Court has temporarily lifted deportation protections for migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua, affecting those who entered the U.S. through humanitarian parole or TPS.
• Impact on Migrants: These protections are not pathways to citizenship but offer temporary legal status, allowing migrants to live and work in the U.S. under specific conditions.
• Temporary Nature of Decisions: The Supreme Court's orders are provisional, pending further legal proceedings in lower courts, leaving many migrants in a precarious legal position.

Jane Coston (00:02):

“...the Supreme Court's orders are only temporary. The justices just lifted deportation protections while the cases play out in lower courts.”

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In-Depth Discussion with Dara Lind

To unpack the complexities of these legal changes, Jane interviews Dara Lind, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council with extensive experience in immigration policy.

Program Overviews:

• Temporary Protected Status (TPS): Established in the 1990s, TPS allows individuals from designated countries experiencing unsafe conditions, such as war or natural disasters, to stay and work in the U.S. Dara explains that recent Supreme Court rulings have revoked TPS for Venezuelans, jeopardizing their legal standing (03:17).

• Humanitarian Parole (CHNV Program): This program permits individuals from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the U.S. legally for two years with work authorization. The Supreme Court’s decision has now terminated protections under this program as well, affecting hundreds of thousands (05:02).

Notable Insights:

• Overlap and Repercussions: Venezuelan migrants are particularly vulnerable as they have faced revocation of both TPS and CHNV protections within a short timeframe, creating ongoing uncertainty (05:07).

• Government Ambiguity: There is a lack of clear communication from the government regarding the status of affected individuals, leaving migrants without clarity on their legal standing and work permits (05:37).

Dara Lind (07:24):

“...there are so many issues with just letting people go by day to day not knowing if they have legal status or not.”

Jane Coston (09:00):

“We’ve also seen immigration officials trying to target people at immigration court or at routine check-ins...”

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Consequences for Migrants Attempting to Stay Legal

Jane and Dara discuss the increased pressure and risks for migrants who have been complying with U.S. laws and regulations.

Key Issues:

• Increased Enforcement: The Trump administration has intensified efforts to deport individuals, utilizing comprehensive databases and targeting those not actively hiding from immigration authorities (07:45).

• Immigration Court Struggles: Migrants face expedited removal processes, often without the chance for a proper hearing, leading to sudden deportations that disrupt lives (09:16).

Quote Highlight: Dara Lind (10:25):

“...they aren’t shoving people out, they aren’t deporting people quickly enough that they can move a whole lot of people through the system.”

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Broader Implications and Future Outlook

The conversation shifts to the broader implications of these rulings and what the future may hold for migrants in the U.S.

Points Discussed:

• Legislative Uncertainty: Without clear policies, migrants remain in a state of legal limbo, with their status frequently changing based on judicial and executive actions.

• Potential Policy Changes: Dara anticipates possible expansions in ICE funding, which could exacerbate deportation efforts, especially if new legislation passes under the Trump administration (10:17).

Conclusion: The episode underscores the precarious situation of legally residing migrants in the U.S., caught between shifting court decisions and aggressive enforcement policies. Dara emphasizes the urgent need for clear governmental guidelines to provide stability and prevent further turmoil for affected individuals.

Dara Lind (11:35):

“...the shoe that hasn't dropped yet that I am really waiting for is that in the reconciliation package there is an enormous expansion of money for ICE...”

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Additional News Highlights

While the main focus was on immigration, the episode also covers other significant news:

1. Anti-Semitic Attack in Boulder, Colorado:

   • A federal hate crime charge has been filed against an Egyptian national whose visa expired in 2023. The suspect targeted a "Run for Their Lives" march supporting Israeli hostages in Gaza, injuring at least 12 individuals (14:31).

2. Supreme Court’s Rejection of Gun Rights Cases:

   • The Court declined to hear cases challenging Rhode Island's high-capacity magazine restrictions and Maryland's assault rifle ban. Conservative Justices dissented, citing the importance of addressing the constitutionality of assault weapons bans in future terms (15:24 – 16:47).

3. U.S.-Iran Nuclear Deal Stalemate:

   • President Trump announced that the U.S. would not allow Iran to enrich uranium under a new proposal, which Iran has dismissed as insufficient. The deal remains stalled with significant disagreements over sanctions and nuclear capabilities (16:48 – 17:22).

4. Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks:

   • Representatives from Ukraine and Russia met in Istanbul, agreeing to prisoner swaps and the return of fallen soldiers' bodies. However, Russian terms such as limiting Ukraine's army size and abandoning NATO ambitions were rejected, leaving the peace process uncertain (17:58 – 18:22).

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Closing Remarks

Jane Coston wraps up the episode by reiterating the critical nature of staying informed and encouraging listeners to subscribe, review, and share the podcast. She highlights the importance of understanding the legal and humanitarian impacts of current immigration policies amidst broader national and international events.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Jane Coston (00:02): “…the Supreme Court's orders are only temporary.”
• Dara Lind (07:24): “…issues with just letting people go by day to day not knowing if they have legal status or not.”
• Dara Lind (10:25): “…they aren’t shoving people out, they aren’t deporting people quickly enough…”
• Dara Lind (11:35): “…reconciliation package there is an enormous expansion of money for ICE…”

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Conclusion

This episode of What A Day provides a comprehensive and nuanced exploration of the current challenges facing legally residing migrants in the U.S., highlighting the immediate and long-term implications of recent Supreme Court rulings. Through expert insights and detailed discussion, listeners gain a thorough understanding of the precarious legal environment and the human stories behind the headlines.

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For more in-depth analysis and updates, subscribe to What A Day on your preferred podcast platform or watch episodes on YouTube. Stay informed with Crooked Media’s What A Day, your guide to what truly matters each morning.

Transcript

[Jane Coston]

It's Tuesday, June 3rd. I'm Jane Coston, and this is what a Day. The show that is Very excited to see the new briefings National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has been tasked with creating for President Donald Trump to make it more fun and interesting for him. Would puppets help? I think so. On today's show, the Supreme Court says no, thanks to hearing two big gun cases. And authorities charged a man suspected of an anti Semitic attack in Boulder, Colorado, with a federal hate crime. But let's start with immigration, because in the last two weeks, the Supreme Court has dealt two huge blows to around half a million migrants living here legally. On Friday, the court said the Trump administration could end deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of folks from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua. They were here under a Biden era expansion of a program called humanitarian parole. It allowed people from those countries to enter the US Legally so long as they met certain requirements. But it isn't a path to citizenship. Friday's decision followed another court order from two weeks ago. That one applied specifically to Venezuelans here under a different but similar program known as Temporary protected status, or TPS. Congress created the program in the 90s, and the TLDR version of it is it allows migrants from certain countries who are already in the US to stay and work here because the government believes conditions in their country of origin are unsafe, maybe because of a natural disaster or a war, but it's also not a path to citizenship. Of course, Donald Trump hates protected status designations and has made ending them a key part of his shove immigrants out the door agenda since day one, literally. He signed an executive order on Inauguration Day directing the Department of Homeland Security to limit the use of both humanitarian parole and tps. It's all very confusing. Immigration law notoriously is. And it's also important to remember two things. One, in both cases, the Supreme Court's orders are only temporary. The justices just lifted deportation protections while the cases play out in lower courts. And two, that's undoubtedly cold comfort for the hundreds of thousands of people whose legal status keeps switching on and off at what must feel like the collective whims of an executive branch largely run by xenophobic maniacs and. And a judiciary branch doing its very best. So now what? I had to talk to someone who knows pretty much everything there is to know about immigration policy. So I called up Dara Lind. She's a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council and spent years covering the topic as a reporter. Dara, welcome back to what a day.

[Dara Lind]

Thank you. I feel like, people like me need a better default than, it's great to be back on because I'm never on for anything good.

[Jane Coston]

Well, once again, you're not on for anything good. But to start out, can you talk about the two programs that the Supreme Court has now gutted? One was temporary protected status, specifically for Venezuelans. The other was what's called humanitarian parole, which also covered Venezuelans, along with people from Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua. What had the government promised to these people?

[Dara Lind]

So both of these are kind of under the broad umbrella of this isn't an official visa that, like Congress has said, can be given out. This is a discretionary form of protection from deportation. But they are different things. There is a law saying that when the executive branch decides that it would be unsafe for people to be returned to a country because of natural disaster, because of civil war, something like that, that the government can grant temporary protected status to people from that country. So. So the Biden administration had done this. It had said, In 2023, we are keeping temporary protected status for Venezuela, and if you showed up in the last two years, you can apply for it and start getting protected. The people who had applied for the first time in 2023 are the people who the Supreme Court said, actually, the Trump administration can just take that back. Okay, so then there's humanitarian parole, which is another thing the executive branch gets to give as a protection from deportation. The Biden administration said, what? We're going to allow people who are not in the US from these four countries, from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, to apply to come here legally for two years and work legally under the protection of humanitarian parole. And so this program, which became known as chnv, was under legal challenge. The Trump administration came in and said, if your two years of protection had not already expired, as of the end of March, it's expired. Goodbye, you're gone. And then there's been a lawsuit over that. And so the Supreme Court then on Friday allowed for this mass termination of protections under the CHNV program.

[Jane Coston]

So for people from Venezuela, was there significant overlap in these programs?

[Dara Lind]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. So those people have now gotten the rug yanked out from under them twice in the last two weeks.

[Jane Coston]

So hundreds of thousands of people have, in the span of literally 2 weeks, had their temporary legal status revoked, albeit temporarily, while various court cases play out. This is confusing for me, and I am not one of the people subject to any of this. So this could take years. What happens now for these folks?

[Dara Lind]

So this is, of course, one of the big fights between this administration and the courts, which is, when can a lower court judge say, you have to stop doing this while we figure out whether it was legal to do so? What the Supreme Court has done is kind of give a couple of big wins to the administration in that fight in saying, we're not taking a stance on the legality of it, although we think you can go forward with acting as if it is. And then at the end of the day, there can be a largely academic decision about whether it was legal to do this or not. So. So, yeah. In the meantime, there is, however, a real question about timelines. Not because the court case is still ongoing, but because when you have a deadline and then a court says that deadline cannot be enforced, and then the date that would have been the deadline passes, and then another court says, well, that shouldn't have happened to begin with. Is the deadline in effect or not? The clearest way to clear this up would be for the government to say, well, we are going to consider every grant of protection to be no longer valid. They haven't said that yet. There's actually a literal page on a government website where they note that they have a victory in the court case. But don't bother to spell out what that means for the people who are currently affected. Like, are their work permits still valid or not? What does it mean for, you know, people who might be, like, renting to them as landlords? There are so many issues with just letting people go by day to day not knowing if they have legal status or not. It really is striking that we're now at two weeks after the TPS decision, and there hasn't been any public facing clarity on that.

[Jane Coston]

And just to be clear to, like, back up a little bit, all of these people are here in the United States legally. They have probably gotten jobs and they live in apartments with landlords. And that also means the government has tons of data on them. Just as the Trump administration is putting pressure on agents to arrest more people, could that information be weaponized against them?

[Dara Lind]

It's a really, really good question. There's nothing necessarily saying it can't. There are questions about whether that's the most useful way to go about things. Like, yeah, an administration that, for example, has told another group of people that it tried to strip of parole, it, like, just sent mass emails. And those mass emails sometimes went to their lawyers, sometimes went to email addresses that their lawyers had never given. The government sometimes went to totally random people like the. They don't appear to be, as, let's say, compelled by data hygiene as we would expect. It is, however, generally true that these are people who are not used to living as if they can be apprehended by immigration enforcement, because as far as you ask them, they came legally. They are going through everything the right way. And so the ability to just like, pick them up because it's easier to find someone who isn't trying to hide is a very real consideration over and above, you know, the kind of logic of in order to deport people who are in the US without status, we're making more people deportable, which is really what we have. They've de documented more people than they've deported.

[Jane Coston]

We've also seen immigration officials trying to target people at immigration court or at routine check ins, which is a big break from how things were done before, because I think that there was a sense of not wanting to deter people from trying to follow the law. So what kind of bind does that put people in who are just trying to stay here?

[Dara Lind]

So, like, the check in thing is absolutely a big bind. That is something we saw under the first Trump administration some, because it's just really easy to deport people who already have to show up for appointments with ICE and just say, well, you know, came in for your check in, we've decided we're detaining you. Now, the immigration court thing is a whole nother level because not only does it mean that if you as, as with an ICE check in, if you don't show up, then you can be ordered deported in absentia and you like, now, now you have a deportation order to your name, you can't try to re enter the US Legally for a certain amount of time. But the other thing with the immigration courthouse arrests that I don't think is getting enough attention is that this is happening as they're trying to terminate these people's cases in immigration court. For people who have been in the US for less than two years, even if they have active immigration court cases, the government has the power to say, we're going to ask the judge to terminate this immigration court case. And if the judge says yes, we are instead going to put you in expedited removal proceedings where we don't have to give you a hearing.

[Jane Coston]

So what does that mean? Is that like, you know, what we've seen with some of these deportation flights, like, one day you're here, the next day you're just gone.

[Dara Lind]

The best protection that immigrants in the US have, and this has been true since Inauguration Day, has not been the law. It's been the logistics they still haven't increased detention to the level where they could really take in a whole lot of people at once. And they aren't shoving people out, they aren't deporting people quickly enough that they can move a whole lot of people through the system. So that means that some of the people who are being detained still will like get released while they're going through proceedings. I think that the shoe that hasn't dropped yet that I am really waiting for is that in the reconciliation package there is an enormous expansion of money for ice, specifically for detention. That's been such a limiting factor that that would allow them to fix a lot of the other logistical issues. And so I can't really tell from here how much of the current frustrations they're dealing with are frustrations that that would happen no matter how big a check Congress wrote them and how much they're just kind of biding their time until Donald Trump can sign a bill that gives ICE like multiple times more money than it's ever had before for the purposes of deporting as many people as possible.

[Jane Coston]

Dara, as always, thank you so much for joining me.

[Dara Lind]

Thank you.

[Jane Coston]

That was my conversation with Dara Lind, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. We'll link to her work in our show notes. We'll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What a Day is brought to you by Oneskin. As the weather warms up, you might want to rethink your skincare routine, especially if you're using retinol, which can leave your skin more vulnerable to sun damage. In lab studies, OS1 face boosted collagen production similar to retinol, but without that sun sensitivity risk. And unlike retinol, which can disrupt your skin barrier, OS one face strengthens it, helping your skin become even more resilient to the sun, heat, pollution and other types of environmental stressors. I definitely noticed a difference, even under makeup. The key is One Skin's patented OS1 peptide. It works by targeting the signs of aging at the cellular level, something retinol can't do. In fact, it's the first peptide scientifically proven to reverse skin's biological age. So instead of irritating your skin like other topicals can, you're helping your skin look, feel and act like its younger self, get stronger, smoother, healthier skin. This summer with OneSkin, you'll save 15% on your first purchase when you use code WAD@OnSkin CO1OneSkin is the world's first skin longevity company. By focusing on the cellular aspects of aging, Oneskin keeps your skin looking and acting younger for longer. For a limited time, you can try OneSkin with 15% off using code WAD atoneskin co. That's 15% off at OneSkin Co with Code Wad. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Give your skin the scientifically proven gentle care it deserves with one skin.

[Unknown]

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[Jane Coston]

You planning revenge on Tiff?

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[Dara Lind]

This is our chance.

[Jane Coston]

It's time to get to work.

[Unknown]

But the men aren't giving up without a fight.

[Dara Lind]

Trees are always gonna have a villain.

[Unknown]

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[Jane Coston]

Why do Black women always have to save the day? If we don't do it, who else will?

[Unknown]

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[Dara Lind]

Many discounts does USAA Auto Insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi vehicle discount Safe driver discount New vehicle discount Storage discount How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com autodiscounts restrictions apply.

[Jane Coston]

Here's what else we're following today. Header lines.

[Unknown]

He said he wanted them all to die. He had no regrets and he would go back and do it again, Acting.

[Jane Coston]

U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado J. Bishop Grull said Monday. The man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at people attending a march in Boulder, Colorado, has been charged with a federal hate crime, according to an FBI affidavit. A group called Run for Their Lives hosted the walk on Sunday to call attention to Israeli hostages st still being held in Gaza. According to the affidavit, the man yelled Free Palestine during the attack, in which at least 12 people were hurt. Gruel said the suspect had been planning his attack for a year and he.

[Unknown]

Acted because he hated what he called the Zionist group. But what the charges allege that he did was to throw Molotov cocktails at a group of men and women, some of them in their late 80s, burning them as they peacefully walked on a Sunday.

[Jane Coston]

The Department of Homeland Security says the man is an Egyptian national whose visa expired in 2023. He's also facing state charges, including attempted murder. The Supreme Court Monday rejected two gun rights cases. One involved Rhode Island's restrictions on high capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The other case centers around Maryland's ban on assault rifles and semiautomatic rifles. Like AR15s, lower courts rejected arguments that the state laws violated the Second Amendment. The majority didn't explain why they declined to hear the cases. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the decision. Thomas wrote that the court should have taken up the Maryland case in particular because of its implications for the millions of Americans who own AR15s, which is considered the most popular rifle in the U.S. conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh said Monday that he agreed with the decision to reject the cases for now, but he noted that he thinks the high court will weigh in on the constitutionality of assault weapons bans, quote, in the next term or two. President Trump said Monday that the US Will not allow Iran to enrich uranium under a new nuclear deal, despite reports that his administration is open to it. He made the statement in a post on Truth Social because, of course, he did. The US submitted a nuclear deal proposal to Iran that would allow the country to enrich uranium at a low level on its own soil, according to Axios. Trump's Middle Eastern envoy, Steve Witkoff, sent the offer to Iran on Saturday. This proposal would be a significant departure from what the White House has publicly said about its demands. Trump officials have maintained that the US Will not allow Iran to enrich uranium at all and that the country must dismantle all of its nuclear facilities to make a deal. Iran has said it will not agree to either of these conditions. Iran is reportedly set to reject the deal. An Iranian senior diplomat told the outlet that the proposal was a, quote, non starter and that it does not clearly address Iran's firm demand that the US lift its sanctions on the country. The news seems to confirm that the US and Iran are still very far apart on a deal after five rounds of talks. Another round is expected to be scheduled soon. Representatives for Ukraine and Russia met in Istanbul on Monday for peace talks just a day after the two countries traded harrowing attacks on one another. The two sides met briefly at the negotiating table and left with an agreement to exchange dead soldiers and capture prisoners of war. Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustom Umarov detailed the swap.

[Unknown]

We agreed to exchange all for all seriously wounded and seriously sick prisoners of war. Second category is young soldiers who are from 18 to 25 years old.

[Jane Coston]

All for all.

[Unknown]

Also, we agreed to return 6,000 to 6,000 bodies of fallen soldiers, but not.

[Jane Coston]

Much else was settled, officials said. The Russian delegation provided a memorandum that outlined its terms for peace. Umarov says Kyiv needs a week to look it over. Russian state news agencies published the document's demands after the talks ended. They include requiring Ukraine to set limits to the size of its army, give up its bid to join NATO and acknowledge Russia's territorial gains, all things Ukraine has already said it would not do. Umarov said he hoped Russia and Ukraine could meet again before the end of the month. And that's the news. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, Contemplate the fact that the new director of FEMA didn't know the United States has a hurricane season and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading a not just about how yes, really, acting FEMA administrator David Richardson told staffers at the agency he didn't know hurricane season, which began June 1, was a thing in the U.S. like me, what a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and [e-mail] subscribe I'm Jane Coston and there are two possibilities here. Either this is one of the worst attempts at a joke ever, or we're screwed. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Foer. Our producer is Michelle Aloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison and our executive producer is Adrienne Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.