Trump Admin Unlawfully Revoked Migrants’ Legal Status Using Biden-Era App, Federal Judge Finds

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

A federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump‘s administration unlawfully revoked the legal status of migrants who had used a Biden-era app to live temporarily in the United States.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs found that the Trump administration acted unlawfully in April 2025 — when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent emails to approximately 900,000 recipients who had entered the U.S. legally during the Biden administration through the CBP One app, declaring “it is time” to “leave.”

“It is time for you to leave the United States,” the email read. “DHS is now exercising its discretion to terminate your parole immediately.”

The CBP One Mobile App was implemented by the Biden administration in 2023 requiring asylum seekers to schedule appointments at legal ports of entry via the app in lieu of crossing into the country illegally. It granted hundreds of thousands of people parole, or temporary permission to reside in the U.S. legally.

Trump’s administration quickly dismantled Biden’s program and revoked this parole.

The case, Sileiri Doe et al. v. Department of Homeland Security et al., was brought to court by immigration advocates and some directly impacted individuals from countries including Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti.

It’s not the first time Burroughs has cracked down on the Trump administration either. In 2025, she blocked the attempt to ban foreign students from attending Harvard, and in 2017, she issued a temporary restraining order for two permanent residents, both of whom are Muslim, who were unlawfully detained at Logan Airport upon reentering the United States.

Former President Barack Obama nominated Burroughs to the position of U.S. district court judge for Massachusetts.

Trump has been critical of her, calling her a “Trump hating judge” and “total disaster.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!