On Sunday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Among the nation’s nearly 14 million estimated unauthorized immigrants, more than two million didn’t sneak over the border or overstay a visa but rather took what was once a legal pathway to the United States endorsed by President Joe Biden. The problem with that? Well, Biden isn’t president anymore, Donald Trump is. And so, what was legal just a few months ago, could easily be illegal tomorrow. The question is, what happens to people who made reasonable plans for staying in the US but suddenly find themselves illegal virtually overnight? What about their families, their kids, their employers? USA TODAY Immigration and Border Reporter Lauren Villagran joins The Excerpt to share her reporting on this developing story.
Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to [email protected].
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here
Dana Taylor:
Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. I’m Dana Taylor. Today is Sunday, April 6th, 2025.
Among the nation’s nearly 14 million estimated unauthorized immigrants, more than 2 million didn’t sneak over the border or overstay a visa, but rather took what was once a legal pathway to the United States endorsed by President Joe Biden. The problem with that? Well, Biden isn’t president anymore. Donald Trump is. And so what was legal just a few months ago could easily be illegal tomorrow.
The question is, what happens with people who made reasonable plans for staying in the US but suddenly find themselves illegal without a leg to stand on virtually overnight? What about their families, their kids, their employers? For more on this developing story, I’m now joined by USA TODAY immigration and border reporter, Lauren Villagran. Lauren, thanks for coming on The Excerpt.
Lauren Villagran:
Thanks for having me, Dana.
Dana Taylor:
Let’s start with some broad strokes to give our listeners and viewers some context. Immigration law is complicated and there are literally dozens of different programs that over time have allowed people to either stay temporarily or pursue a legal pathway to the United States. Set the stage for us here, please.
Lauren Villagran:
At issue right now, Dana, is a group of people who partook in one of the Biden administration’s legal pathways to the United States. They were based on law, but experts say that Biden used executive authority underpinned by law on a scale that had never been seen before. We’re talking about the nearly 1 million people who presented at a port of entry with an appointment on the CBP One app.
We’re talking about Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, who took advantage of a humanitarian parole program where they could show that they had a sponsor in the United States and then fly into the United States. That’s about 500,000 people. And in some cases we’re also talking about Temporary Protected Status, which wasn’t a path to the United States, but was available to immigrants who were already here. We’re seeing the Trump administration, as promised, as part of their immigration crackdown, wipe away these statuses. So the folks who thought that they followed the rules in coming to the United States as they were written during the Biden administration have found that the rules have changed.
For many U.S. immigrants, legal status is suddenly out of reach
What happens to people who made reasonable plans for staying in the US but suddenly find themselves illegal virtually overnight?
Dana Taylor:
And just walk me through how these deportations might play out. These are people who are living here in America, in cities and towns across the US. They have jobs and families. And then what happens?
Lauren Villagran:
Well, Dana, as we’re seeing, President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is taking a variety of forms. We are seeing people detained in a variety of ways and settings, whether that’s upon entering the United States by air. Folks who may have thought they could travel by plane domestically because they’re in some kind of process are being detained. We have seen ICE go out into communities. They are saying they are targeting folks with criminal records and criminal backgrounds, but there have been an array of cases already showing that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are also picking up those who only have an immigration violation.
The deportation process is also taking unusual and unprecedented paths. We’ve seen President Trump strike a deal with El Salvador to house, so far, only men, alleged gang members, although we’re also uncovering that there have been people who allegedly do not have any gang connection or criminal record sent to this high-security Salvadoran prison. We’re seeing ICE detention across the country get into a situation where the jails and detention centers are overcrowded and conditions are deteriorating. So we’re three months into the Trump administration. The immigration crackdown that was promised is happening and it’s happening very quickly in a variety of ways.
Dana Taylor:
How have immigrants reacted in this moment?
Lauren Villagran:
Well, there’s a variety of opinions here. Obviously, the folks who are affected are in different situations. There are those who understood from the get-go that the programs they benefited from under the Biden administration were not designed to be permanent and they may have already taken steps to pursue legal status in the United States that is more protected from a shift in executive action. For example, somebody may have come under the Cuban, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelan humanitarian parole program, and maybe they’ve already applied for asylum. Maybe they’ve met someone and have gotten married and are pursuing a family green card.
But those who have not taken any additional action or who don’t qualify for anything else are watching with bated breath at what happens. The Trump Administration Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Kristi Noem, has moved to eliminate Temporary Protected Status for both Venezuelans and Haitians. She has canceled the Cuban, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelan humanitarian parole program. This is more than a million people who now are either scrambling to apply for another program or will they go underground? Will they pack their bags and go home? It’s early days. I don’t think we know yet.
Dana Taylor:
Lauren, I know you interviewed several individuals who might be impacted for your article. Are any of them supportive of this administration’s immigration policies?
Lauren Villagran:
What’s interesting, Dana, is that even within the immigrant community in the United States, there are those who are 100% in favor of President Trump’s decision to crack down and eliminate the Biden era programs. I spoke with Gustavo Garagorry, who is the president of the Venezuelan American Republican Club in Miami. Now, Florida is a place that welcomed hundreds of thousands of immigrants through these Biden era programs. And Gustavo’s own family members benefited from some of them, his extended family.
He had been telling them as a proud Trump voter to get ready to apply for other programs that could afford them legal status that is more permanent. In his take, the Biden programs were a quote unquote, “disaster.” He brings up an issue that few talked about during the Biden era as President Joe Biden tried to address a humanitarian crisis at the border. He created a number of, quote unquote, “legal pathways” that as one former DHS official told me were, quote unquote, “built on sand.” To say that it was a way for people to come to the United States, but with no real promise of staying.
Dana Taylor:
Last Monday, a judge ruled in favor of some Venezuelans who’d sued the current administration who wanted to end the TPS program for them. This covers up to 600,000 Venezuelans. As of this taping, the case is currently in an appeals court. What happens there and does it affect others in the US under the CHNB program?
Lauren Villagran:
So as you mentioned, there is one of dozens of cases that have been brought against the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Noem’s decision to cancel the Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans as well as Haitians. In the case that you’re referring to, the judge has essentially blocked the administration from doing so. We know that as many as 350,000 Venezuelans were immediately going to lose their Temporary Protected Status on Monday. That is on hold for now as of this taping. But there are challenges in courts across the country.
However, the government will argue that Temporary Protected Status, though underpinned by law, is executive authority. The Department of Homeland Security can decide to provide Temporary Protected Status. It always has an end date and a limit. Secretary Noem decided to cancel it ahead of its current limit. But in the past Homeland Security secretaries have done that. The Temporary Protected Status can come and go.
Dana Taylor:
Lauren, I have to ask, how is the Trump administration planning to get any of the people we’re talking about back home? Are they just going to be rounded up one by one and put on deportation flights? Have you seen or heard anything resembling an organized plan for this?
Lauren Villagran:
Things are changing by the day. Early in the Trump administration, we saw the use of military C-17 planes taking men to the Guantanamo Bay US Military Detention Center in Cuba. That practice has stopped for the moment. There was widespread outrage over it and concerns also from Republicans at the cost of using those military flights. ICE has a system of using charter planes to return people to their countries of origin. But we’ve also started to see the practice, used in prior administrations but certainly ramped up now, of removing people to a third country, a country where they are not from.
Early in the administration, we saw numerous Asian immigrants sent to Panama. Of course, we’re seeing the deportation of alleged gang members to this high security prison in El Salvador. It’s worth noting that no president in modern history has reached the million people per year deported mark. For example, President Barack Obama had the highest level of deportation since the early 2000 with more than 400,000 people deported in a single year.
Dana Taylor:
Latin American and Caribbean immigrants together accounted for 84% of all unauthorized immigrants in 2023 according to the Migration Policy Institute. Some of those people are here legally at the moment under the TPS program. How is that even possible? And then how many people are we talking about and what motivated them to come to the US?
Lauren Villagran:
It’s a great question, Dana, and it’s not just TPS. You can be part of the unauthorized population and still be here on some sort of legal status. For example, those who came via the CBP One app during the Biden administration, the nearly 1 million people who are part of the unauthorized population did come to a port of entry. They followed the rules as set by the Biden administration, but they were classified as quote unquote, “inadmissible.” And yet they were also here with the authorization of the United States. So it’s very complex.
The Immigration and Naturalization Act that is the governing law of the US immigration system includes all sorts of contradictions. For example, it is illegal to cross the border between ports of entry. It’s a federal misdemeanor to do so. The same law says it’s legal to do so and seek asylum. The law allows a president to provide humanitarian parole to groups of people fleeing conflict or persecution. But the parole still classifies you as inadmissible and it has no guarantees of lawful status, but it can sometimes come with a work authorization.
So you can see that the US immigration system, which Congress has not reformed in more than 30 years, is just filled with contradictions and it’s one of the reasons why you see Democrats and Republicans speaking about immigration and immigrants using very different language. The law allows for both of it.
So again, we know that around 2 million people came via one of the Biden administration’s, quote unquote, “legal pathways.” And what motivated them? It’s a variety of motivations, Dana. Some people were fleeing a totalitarian regime in Venezuela. Others were seeking economic opportunity as their own country’s economy collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reasons can be incredibly personal. Sometimes it’s about family violence. Sometimes it’s about trying to escape recruitment into a dangerous gang like the MS-13 or Barrio 18 in El Salvador. So the motivations were multifaceted, but at the end of the day, when I speak with migrants, it always almost boils down to one thing. They were seeking for a chance at the American Dream.
Dana Taylor:
Lauren, we can’t talk about immigrants, both legal and illegal, without also recognizing their contribution to our economy. According to the National Immigration Forum, an advocacy nonprofit, people from El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti contribute a combined $4.5 billion in pre-tax wages or salary income annually as of April 2017, the most recent year we have data for. Won’t this loss of revenue hurt communities, including Florida, by the way? In fact, a little over a third of the TPS immigrants in the US appear to be based in Florida. Businesses there could really struggle with the loss of so much labor, particularly in the construction business. Could there be a political price for this administration here?
Lauren Villagran:
It remains to be seen. Everything that you mentioned is true. Immigrants contribute billions of dollars to the GDP every year as numerous organizations and think tanks have found. There are those right-leaning think tanks that will also say that immigrants rely on services more than others. And so there is a healthy debate around both the economic drain and the economic contribution of immigrants. But as you mentioned, there are certainly places where immigrant labor and families are concentrated, places like Florida, Texas, California, and New York.
As President Trump eliminates some of the programs that provide legal work authorization, that allow immigrants to work and pay taxes, it’s absolutely going to have an effect. But you know what’s interesting, Dana, is that the president’s immigration crackdown is reaching even into the upper echelons. We’ve seen people like Harvard researchers detained over fairly minor immigration issues. So we’re definitely in new territory now and I think we should check back in in a few months and we can talk more about that.
Dana Taylor:
Lauren, thank you so much for being on The Excerpt.
Lauren Villagran:
Thank you, Dana.
Dana Taylor:
Thanks to our senior producers Shannon Rae Green and Kaylee Monahan for their production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to [email protected]. Thanks for listening. I’m Dana Taylor. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.