Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is co-leading a coalition of 30 U.S. cities, counties and and elected officials challenging the Trump administration’s plans to strip legal protections for immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Wu announced that she was spearheading an amicus, or “friend of the court,” brief on Monday, at around the same time that the Supreme Court chose to allow the Trump administration to strip legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans, potentially exposing them to deportation.

The brief, filed in Supreme Court, argues that “by suddenly revoking the legal status and work authorization for hundreds of thousands of residents, the termination of the CNHV — Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela — parole program would have extreme and negative consequences to the economic vitality and public safety of cities across the U.S., including Boston,” Wu’s office said.

“The Trump administration’s termination of the CHNV parole program targets immigrants, instilling fear in our communities and threatening the foundation of safety and trust that helps keep everyone safe,” Wu said in a statement. “We are joining other cities and counties from across the country to protect the rights of more than 530,000 residents who are living and working legally through this program and ensure this critical program can continue.

“We will never stop working to make Boston a home for everyone,” she added.

Established in January 2023, the CHNV parole program was designed to offer certain people the right to live and work in the United States if conditions in their home country made it an urgent humanitarian imperative. The program is aimed, in part, in reducing immigrants’ reliance on smugglers for entry into the country, and allows for “pre-vetted migration through airports,” Wu’s office said.

Participants are able to seek humanitarian relief, including asylum, through a two-year parole period, the mayor’s office said.

Wu’s office said Monday that terminating the parole program would undermine public safety, undercut residents’ confidence in their legal rights, and deter residents from calling 911 for emergencies or to report a crime.

The brief, per the mayor’s office, continues the city’s “efforts to protect Boston’s immigrant residents and their families from attacks by the federal government.”

It was filed in response to the “abrupt termination” of the humanitarian parole program that was announced by the Department of Homeland Security in late March.

Last week, the federal government asked the court to allow it to end humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, setting them up for potential deportation.

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans.

Related Articles

Boston city councilors push for review of BPS drivers after bus kills 5-year-old boy

Josh Kraft pushes Mayor Wu to reveal cabinet chief’s ‘role’ in Boston City Hall dispute

Councilor Flynn calls for Economic Opportunity and Inclusion chief’s resignation

Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was $19K in debt at time of $7K kickback

Boston Mayor Wu launches campaign effort to get her preferred city councilor on ballot

The court’s order, with only one noted dissent, puts on hold a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that kept in place Temporary Protected Status for the Venezuelans that would have otherwise expired last month.

The high court also has been involved in slowing Trump’s efforts to swiftly deport Venezuelans accused of being gang members to a prison in El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act.

The complex economic and political crisis in Venezuela has driven more than 7.7 million people to leave the South American nation since 2013.

“We stand in solidarity with our immigrant communities living in fear because of the detrimental actions of the Trump Administration,” City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune said in a statement. “Protecting the humanitarian parole program is about uplifting our neighbors, defending human dignity and decency, and recognizing that our city’s strength is our diversity. We thrive on the contributions of every resident, no exceptions, full stop.”

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. 

The Supreme Court (AP Photo/Jon Elswick, File)