Washington, D.C. — The Value Our Families campaign condemns the Trump administration’s cruel and senseless termination of the Family Reunification Parole program for immigrants from Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Family Reunification Parole is a life-changing program that allows immigrants from certain countries who have approved family-based immigration petitions to join their families in safety in the United States while awaiting their green cards. The termination of the program will unnecessarily and inhumanely force tens of thousands of immigrants with approved family-based petitions to leave their families behind. 

“At a time when families should be gathering for the holidays, the Trump administration has ripped the rug from beneath tens of thousands of immigrants, temporarily waiting here in the U.S.,” said Martin Kim, Director of Immigration Advocacy at Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, one of the co-conveners of the Value Our Families campaign. 

“Instead of being able to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones, many of our community members will instead have to upend their lives and prepare to leave their family for years, and even decades, while they wait for visas to become available. This is not only cruel, it’s senseless, as all of these individuals have approved family-based immigration applications. The Family Reunification Parole programs simply allowed them to wait with their families in the U.S. instead of abroad for the paperwork to come through.”

“This is the opposite of family values, and an unconscionable step in the wrong direction. Americans deserve a better immigration system, one that enables families to reunite and build a better future together. We urge the Trump administration to reverse course and restore this program.” 

The Value Our Families Coalition exists to protect, preserve, and strengthen family immigration. We are a network of community-based and advocacy organizations promoting an immigration system informed by love, empathy, and justice, and rejecting policies that harm immigrant families. We build public support for an immigration system that protects family unity and contributes to this country’s social and economic fabric.