On March 25, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a 30-day notice that it will be ending Biden’s CHNV Parole Program for half a million refugees from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The 30-day deadline means that legal protected status for those protected under this program will end on April 24. DHS warns that afterwards, they will be detained and deported by ICE.

At the Amazon warehouse where I work, half of my coworkers are immigrants, and the majority of those workers are Haitian immigrants who have legal status to work through the parole program or TPS. Many of my coworkers received letters from DHS last week ordering them to self-deport. These letters have left many of my friends scared, confused, and angry. “I’m not going to leave,” one of my friends said to me in the breakroom. “This is my home now, too.”

The CHNV Parole Program began in 2022 for Venezuelans and in 2023 for Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans. It was designed as a humanitarian program modeled off of the 2022 United for Ukraine program, with the goal of reducing “illegal” border crossings. Of course, U.S. imperialism — through sanctions, IMF loans, and other imperialist intervention, has created the conditions that compel migration from these countries in the first place. 

By the end of 2024, 110,240 Cubans, 211,040 Haitians, 93,080 Nicaraguans, and 117,320 Venezuelans were granted parole in the U.S. through the program. The program has granted work visas to its recipients, and many of them work in key industries like manufacturing, hospitality, construction, and healthcare.

Now the end of their legal status is imminent. In a recent statement, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin called the parole recipients “loosely vetted aliens” and claimed that parole “granted them opportunities to compete for American jobs and undercut American workers.” However, this is blatantly false and is an ideological tactic by the Trump administration to vilify immigrants. In fact, the influx of migrants through the CHNV and other parole programs has filled gaps in industries that have had critical labor shortages following the pandemic.

This attack is part of the broader wave of Trump’s offensive against immigrants. His administration has closed the border to new asylum claims for entry, and initiated a program of mass deportations. DHS is targeting political activists that hold student visas and green cards, particularly those involved in the movement for Palestinian liberation, in which university campuses have become a breeding ground of institutional acquiescence. Several weeks ago, Trump announced the end of temporary protected status (TPS) in August. Now, immigrants who have fled political persecution and instability in their home countries — largely as a result of U.S. imperialism — through the parole program and TPS face the threat of becoming undocumented. 

Beyond the risk of deportation, this change in status also makes these workers more precarious and will allow bosses to further exploit immigrant workers. A coworker of mine said to me, “If a job [after I lose my work permit] will hire me for $13 an hour, I will work that job, because I will need the money.” The precarization of immigrant workers also weakens the power of labor more broadly, by pitting workers against each other and driving down real wages for all workers. Ending temporary and CHNV status is another escalation of Trump’s attacks on labor rights and protections. Only two days after announcing the end of the CHNV program, Trump signed an executive order ending collective bargaining rights for 1 million federal employees. These attacks are two sides of the same coin in the undisguised and repugnant drive of the Trump administration to fortify billionaire interests under a white-supremacist and nationalist banner.

Biden and the Democratic Party set precedent for these attacks, and have not contested them in any meaningful way. Indeed, in October 2024, Biden began the attack on the CHNV program by deciding that immigrants in the parole program would not be allowed to renew their two-year work permits. Trump’s cancellation of the program accelerated the bipartisan anti-immigrant process that was already underway.

This decision will have a devastating impact on workers and their families all over the country. Ironically, many of the immigrant workers that will be affected by the CHNV parole program ending are precarious workers at some of the richest chain companies in the world, like Amazon. When they lose their work permits in less than a month, many will be at risk of also losing their jobs. Many immigrant workers are not represented by lawyers, and lack the proper information to navigate a bureaucratic and hostile immigration apparatus. Their futures are thrown into heightened uncertainty. A politicized and bigoted maneuver by Trump’s DHS will have a material impact on half a million people’s ability to work, send money home to their families in their countries of origin, and have a basic sense of security. For many, deportation back to their home country would be life-threatening.

These attacks, which have been unrelenting since Trump’s inauguration, aim to instill fear in immigrant communities and paralyze resistance to the administration’s scapegoating of immigrants as well as the self-organization of immigrant workers.

Yet, immigrant communities and workers are rising up in inspiring examples of how to fight back. Workers, students, and community members have taken to the streets across the country to assert that immigrant rights are human rights, and no person is illegal. Teachers have been organizing in schools to create sanctuary committees and advocate for the rights of their students and families. And unions have rallied in defense of Mahmoud Khalil, Lelo Juarez Zeferino and other detained immigrant activists. The totalizing nature of Trump’s attacks provide us a roadmap in how to respond: we must unite our struggles, because together we are stronger.

Organized labor must take a stand against the attacks on the recipients of the CHNV parole program. This decision will affect workers in less than a month. What will our response be?

At Amazon, as just one example, a large number of workers are at risk. The company, which is infamous for its abusive and exploitative labor practices, will not do anything to defend them. The Teamsters union, as they are trying to unionize Amazon, must step up. The union should organize Amazon workers to defend their immigrant coworkers using collective action and build strike power, and should contribute financial resources towards legal defense and funds should Amazon workers lose their jobs. At UPS, the Teamsters must organize to defend their immigrant membership, and take union action to defend Amazon workers.

However, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has already betrayed Amazon workers with his backwards pandering to Trump’s agenda. Calling on Trump to increase Mexican tariffs and slandering immigrant workers is not only reprehensible in essence but also sabotages the Teamster goal of unionizing Amazon. It exposes how, for the Teamster bureaucracy, Amazon workers are just pawns to increase membership and pay union dues. Amazon organizing must fight for all Amazon workers, and the Amazon movement must unite across lines of nationality, citizenship, gender, sexuality, and all types of difference. This is both the just strategy and the only strategy that can win, as Amazon workers are both multinational in the United States and international, in that the company has workers around the world. Only an internationalist and anti-chauvinistic program can orient a strong and militant Amazon worker movement. This program will be built by Amazon workers themselves, and will surely clash with the hypocritical Teamsters leadership.

Unions must protect the rights of immigrant workers. All workers must unite to demand that CHNV recipients are not fired nor deported once the parole program ends. Workers must organize ourselves to create rapid response plans, community support networks, and we must demand that our unions prepare to go on strike to defend these immigrant workers and their jobs. As the working class, we must demand through withholding our labor power that immigrant workers are granted full human and worker rights. We must stand in militant solidarity with CHNV recipients, TPS recipients, and all who are the targets of the authoritarian attacks.