FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Medhini Kumar
Associate Director, Communications
[email protected]
Washington, D.C. (August 19, 2026) – In another coordinated blow to immigrant families and lawful avenues to legal status, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) issued a decision on August 13 severely undermining the long-standing benefits of advance parole. By closing this crucial mechanism, the Trump administration is actively barring U.S. citizens and their loved ones from securing stability and keeping their families whole.
For years, authorized travel under advance parole allowed individuals, including Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, to return with an inspected entry, enabling them to adjust their status to lawful permanent residency inside the United States through family-based petitions. By upending this precedent, the BIA is forcing family members of U.S. citizens into impossible choices: remain in limbo or leave the country for consular processing, risking punitive, multi-year bans from returning home.
“The Trump administration continues to systematically close every lawful door available to immigrant families,” said Victoria Maqueda Feldman, Ayuda’s Director of Legal Programs. “This decision directly hinders U.S. citizens and their loved ones from finding permanent safety and stability. For TPS holders facing the termination of their protections, advance parole was a crucial, legitimate pathway to status. Shutting down this lifeline tears at the foundation of mixed-status families across the country.”
This ruling is not an isolated legal shift; it is part of a broader, deliberate campaign to restrict legal immigration and deter pathways to citizenship. The decision comes alongside aggressive terminations of TPS and newly restrictive U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) guidance on public charge inadmissibility determinations, announced yesterday.
Ayuda rejects this multi-pronged effort to penalize working families and keep immigrants permanently marginalized, and continues to advocate for the rights and dignity of our neighbors.
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About Ayuda:
Ayuda provides direct legal, social, and language access services to low-income immigrants in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Since 1973, Ayuda has served more than 150,000 immigrants throughout the region. Ayuda is the only nonprofit service provider in the area that provides a wide range of immigration and family law assistance, social services, and language access support for all immigrants – including women, men, and children – from anywhere in the world. Visit www.ayuda.com to learn more.