The Trump administration said Friday that it was ending a Biden-era program that allowed hundreds of thousands of people from four troubled countries to enter the United States lawfully and work for up to two years.
The program offered applicants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela the opportunity to fly to the United States and quickly secure work authorization, provided they passed security checks and had a financial sponsor. They were allowed to stay for up to two years, which could be renewed.
Billed “legal pathways” by the Biden administration, the program was first introduced for Venezuelans in 2022, and was expanded to nationals of the other three countries the following year.
By the end of 2024, more than 500,000 migrants had entered the United States through the initiative, known as the C.H.N.V. program, an abbreviation of the countries covered by it.
The work permits and protection from deportation conferred under the program’s authority, called parole, would expire on April 24.
The program’s termination had been expected. On President Trump’s first day back in office, he ordered the Homeland Security Department to take steps to end it.
But the formal notice on Friday announcing its elimination throws into doubt the ability to remain in the United States for hundreds of thousands of people who could face grave danger or economic duress if they are forced to return to their home countries.
“It’s taking the livelihood away from thousands and thousands of people who are here legally, rendering them undocumented and putting their lives at risk,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an advocacy organization.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, said in a statement that the “termination of the C.H.N.V. parole programs, and the termination of parole for those who exploited it, is a return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First.”
Employers, like Amazon and Honda, which have struggled with worker shortages have hired many beneficiaries of the program since its inception.
“These people came here lawfully, and they have been contributing to the economy,” said Ms. Jozef.
A notice from Homeland Security, scheduled to be published in the federal register on Tuesday, said the termination of the program would take effect 30 days later.
“These programs do not serve a significant public benefit, are not necessary to reduce levels of illegal immigration, did not sufficiently mitigate the domestic effects of illegal immigration, are not serving their intended purposes, and are inconsistent with the Administration’s foreign policy goals,” said the notice.
Migrants without another legal basis to remain in the United States would be required to leave the country before their parole termination date, the notice said. If they do not leave, they could be targeted for deportation by immigration authorities.
President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s administration had cast the program, which survived legal challenges, as a way to bring order to the southern border by creating an alternative that allowed people from the four countries to enter the country legally, if they met certain conditions.
Under pressure on the issue of immigration in an election year, the Biden administration said last fall that it was allowing the program to lapse.
A separate but similar parole program created by the Biden administration has allowed some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the war with Russia to legally enter and temporarily stay in the United States. Mr. Trump said early this month that he would decide soon whether to end that program.
The end of the C.H.N.V. program comes as the Trump administration has broadened its crackdown on immigrants.
Setareh Ghandehari, an advocacy director at the rights group Detention Watch Network, said the development was “in line with the Trump administration’s multipronged strategy of wreaking havoc on immigrant communities and expanding the deportation and detention system.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting.
