Claims that President Trump “canceled temporary legal status for more than 1.5 million immigrants in 2025” miss what actually happened, but the underlying reality is still sweeping: over 11 months, the Trump administration took a series of steps that, added together, stripped lawful permission to stay or work from 1.6 million immigrants, according to a December 22, 2025 report by WUNC. The figure reflects program shutdowns, parole endings, visa revocations, and related policy changes that hit families, employers, colleges, and local communities at once, often with little time for people to make backup plans.
Much of the count comes from the end of humanitarian parole programs, especially the CHNV parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. WUNC reported that the Supreme Court upheld the administration’s move on May 30, 2025, clearing the way for parolees to lose the temporary permission that had allowed them to live and work in the United States 🇺🇸.
Parole is not a visa and not a green card; it is a short-term entry-and-stay decision. But for many, it is the bridge that keeps a family housed and employed while they seek something more stable, like asylum or a family petition.
Form I-134A and halted sponsorship pathways
The ripple effects were sharpened when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stopped taking applications tied to Form I-134A, a sponsorship form used in several parole pathways.
- The USCIS halt affected the CHNV program and other routes mentioned in the source material, including Ukrainian parole, the Central American Minors (CAM) parole program, and family reunification parole.
- The form itself is the “Declaration of Financial Support,” a promise by a supporter that they can help cover a newcomer’s basic needs; the official page for Form I-134A is https://www.uscis.gov/i-134a.
When filings tied to the form stop moving, people abroad can be left waiting in danger or separation, and people already here can struggle to prove they remain eligible for related benefits.
Visa revocations and their effects
WUNC also pointed to the State Department’s aggressive use of visa revocations as another large piece of the 2025 total.
- The department revoked 85,000 visas across categories, including over 8,000 student visas.
- Reasons cited ranged from DUI arrests to “speech not aligning with American values,” WUNC reported.
A State Department official defended the approach with a blunt message:
“people who pose a direct threat are not wanted in the country.”
Even when a person is not deported right away, a revoked visa can collapse a life built around legal status—ending school enrollment, cutting off travel, and placing a worker or student into removal proceedings if they cannot shift to another status.
Whiplash for Ukrainians and other program pauses
Ukrainians caught in the middle of war-related displacement faced their own uncertainty. WUNC reported that the administration paused and resumed the “Uniting for Ukraine” program, a whiplash that left thousands unsure whether their travel approvals, entry permission, or follow-on paperwork would still stand.
That kind of stop-and-start policy creates immediate fear in immigrant households because it affects basic needs:
- Whether a child can stay in the same school district
- Whether a landlord will renew a lease
- Whether a person can safely travel for a funeral or family emergency without getting locked out of the country
Work authorization changes
Work authorization, a daily survival issue for immigrants and the businesses that hire them, also shifted in ways that can quietly push people out of the labor market.
- A Department of Homeland Security final rule ended the 540-day automatic EAD extension on October 30, 2025, WUNC reported.
- EAD means Employment Authorization Document, the work permit many immigrants rely on while waiting for longer cases to move.
Automatic extensions can prevent job loss when government processing is slow. Taking that cushion away increases the odds that a nurse, warehouse worker, or daycare employee will lose a job simply because a renewal is stuck in a backlog, even if they remain eligible.
Travel limits, naturalization cancellations, and broader outcomes
The administration tied these moves to a broader enforcement and restriction agenda that also included new travel limits.
- WUNC reported legal pathways from 19 countries—including Afghanistan, Haiti, and Iran—were halted via travel bans on June 4, 2025.
- The actions included canceling naturalization ceremonies, which do more than delay a passport:
- Delay the right to vote
- Delay the ability to petition for close relatives
- Delay the stability that comes from citizenship when policies change again
These are not abstract legal points for families. They affect whether a spouse can reunite with a partner, or whether a child grows up with one parent abroad.
Stateless policy change
Other changes were more technical but still harsh in impact. USCIS ended what the source material calls the “stateless policy,” leaving stateless people—those no country recognizes as citizens—without a protection framework or work authorization options they previously used.
- People without nationality often cannot get passports and cannot safely return “home.”
- They cannot simply switch to another visa line.
- When the policy changed, they risked slipping into a category where they could neither regularize their status nor leave, while still being treated as removable.
Administration rationale and responses
Federal officials cast the sweeping rollback as a fiscal and security choice.
- DHS told NPR, according to WUNC’s account, that the changes would reduce the taxpayer burden associated with “unlawfully present aliens” and would strengthen national security.
- White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt applauded the effort, WUNC reported.
Immigrant advocates pushed back, arguing the changes would make daily life harder in ways that pressure people to leave even when they have legal claims. NPR reporter Maria Bustillo cited advocates warning that forcing departures through paperwork and uncertainty can destabilize families and workplaces and can leave people facing danger if they return to unstable countries.
Deportations and enforcement
The 2025 actions also played out alongside removals at scale.
- WUNC reported over 600,000 deportations in DHS figures during the same period.
For many immigrants, losing parole or a work permit does not automatically mean immediate deportation, but it can:
- Make a person deportable
- Cut them off from tools that help them stay compliant—like lawful employment, a driver’s license in some states, or the ability to travel to renew paperwork
Legal challenges and future risks
Some lawyers and bar groups have focused on the legal boundaries being tested.
- The New York City Bar Association has tracked executive actions that challenge limits on presidential authority, WUNC reported.
- Lawsuits continued over pieces of the 2025 agenda.
Advocates warned that more status losses could follow in 2026 if Temporary Protected Status is allowed to expire for half a dozen countries without redesignation. According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, the common thread in these changes is speed: rules and program closures can move faster than courts, and far faster than the ability of families to find new immigration options.
Key takeaway: rapid policy shifts, program closures, and enforcement actions combined to remove lawful permissions from millions—creating cascading legal, social, and economic consequences for individuals, families, employers, and communities.
For official background on humanitarian parole in the United States 🇺🇸, USCIS posts program information at its humanitarian parole page: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services humanitarian parole page.
Over an 11-month period in 2025, the Trump administration implemented policies that removed lawful status from 1.6 million immigrants. These actions targeted humanitarian parole programs, revoked thousands of student and travel visas, and ended automatic work permit extensions. The administration defends these moves as essential for national security and reducing taxpayer burdens, while legal groups and advocates highlight the resulting family separations and economic disruptions.
