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The United States government announced this Friday that it was terminating the programs parole Family Reunification (FRP) for seven countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The action taken by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) affects citizens of Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti.
The programs parole Reunification was launched by the Biden administration in 2023 to allow immediate relatives of people with regular immigration status in the United States to enter the country legally and temporarily while they wait for their visas to be processed.
According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), beneficiaries of family reunification programs who are in the United States and have not applied for permanent residency must leave the country on January 14 if they have no other legal alternative to remain.
The agency that announced this new policy cited the need to keep Americans safe and claimed that “criminals and fraudsters” could enter the country under the guise of family reunification.
The USCIS assured that DHS will reinstate the issuance of these authorizations on a “case-by-case basis” after allegedly verifying the eligibility of the beneficiaries.
What does the measure consist of?
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“The Department of Homeland Security has canceled all categorical family reunification permit (FRP) programs for aliens from Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras and their immediate families,” the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released in a statement.
The institution claimed that it was “putting an end to the abuse of humanitarian authorizations that allowed foreign nationals to evade the traditional temporary residence permit (“parole”) process without properly conducted security investigations and background checks.”
He argued that “criminals and fraudsters could exploit this to enter the United States,” which represents “an unacceptable level of risk to the country,” whose immigration authorities prioritize “the safety and financial and economic well-being of Americans.”
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“The cancellation of the FRP programs is a necessary return to common sense politics and the principle of ‘America First,'” the statement emphasizes.
And it says: “The desire for family reunification does not override the government’s responsibility to prevent fraud and abuse and to defend national and public security.”
Invitation to leave the USA
The statement said: “If an alien has been granted temporary residency in the United States under the FRP programs and his or her temporary residency has not expired as of January 14, 2026, it will be canceled as of that date,” except in certain cases.
The exception applies to those who have a pending Form I-485, the application by which a person already in the United States asks to adjust their immigration status to become a legal permanent resident (the so-called “green card”).
This applies as long as the application was “postmarked or submitted electronically on or before December 15, 2025” and is still pending as of January 14, 2026.
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The USCIS noted that if there is a pending Form I-485, “your probation will remain in effect until the probation period expires or until we make a final decision on your pending Form I-485, whichever occurs first.”
However, he warned: “If we reject your Form I-485, your period of stay will be canceled and the alien must leave the United States immediately.”
The statement also highlights that the cancellation of the temporary residence permit will have an immediate impact on employment.
“When we cancel the temporary residence permit of a foreign national under the FRP programs, we also revoke his employment authorization based on that temporary residence permit,” it said.
USCIS added that it will notify “each alien individually” of the termination of his or her residency and revocation of work authorization.
The document also states that “aliens who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States after the termination of the FRP programs must leave the country before the expiration date of their temporary residence permit.”
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