On March 31, 2026, a federal judge in Boston ordered the government to restore immigration parole for people admitted under the Biden-era CBP One program, which used a phone app to process asylum-seekers at ports of entry on the southern border. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs vacated the Trump administration’s decision to terminate that parole status, concluding the revocations violated required procedural safeguards under U.S. law.
CBP One originally allowed prospective border entrants to register, be inspected and receive parole. After the 2024 election, the subsequent Trump administration repurposed and renamed the system CBP Home, using it in part to encourage self-deportation among people in the country without authorization. More than 900,000 migrants from around the world were admitted through CBP One at official southern border ports of entry; it is not yet clear how many of those individuals will benefit from Burroughs’ order because some may already have been removed or obtained other lawful status.
The Department of Justice is expected to appeal the ruling. The Biden administration had defended CBP One as a tool that reduced unlawful crossings by providing a lawful pathway for people to enter and be processed. Trump administration officials argued the program exceeded executive authority and improperly allowed hundreds of thousands to enter outside traditional immigration procedures.
In April 2025, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was ending the parole status of those processed under CBP One and urged them to self-deport or face possible detection, arrest and removal. After Tuesday’s ruling, DHS said it still retains the authority to revoke parole and criticized the decision as judicial overreach that interferes with the President’s Article II powers to determine who may remain in the country. The department also said the CBP One policy had been abused and contributed to border challenges.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which brought the court challenge, said the order rejects a harmful policy and rebukes an administration effort to strip lawful status from hundreds of thousands with a click of a button. Perryman emphasized that the organization’s clients had followed the program’s rules by waiting, registering, being inspected and receiving parole.