Martha MacCallum complains about restrictions on deporting people “en masse”
MacCallum: “It’s got to be person-by-person, which obviously would take a really long time”
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From the April 15, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum
MARTHA MACCALLUM (HOST): This judge is arguing that, if you want to reverse -- if this president, President Trump wants to do his own executive action, that would reverse an executive action by President Biden, she says you can't do it en masse. It's got to be person-by-person, which obviously would take a really long time, with over 500,000 individuals.
JOHN YOO (GUEST): I'm afraid the judge here has misread the law. This is not like a normal immigration process where people get a visa, where they get some kind of permanent legal status to stay in the country. In this case, you do get a hearing before you're deported. This is under a different power that presidents have called parole. Parole specifically says in the law that for humanitarian reasons, a president can let some people into the country, but it confers no permanent legal status as an alien. Your status is unchanged, and it even says that the Department of Homeland Security could end it at any time. You have no right to stay in the country and your status is just the same as it was.
So, actually in this case, I would say that the president could terminate all of these admissions under the parole program -- that's what Congress said. And then if any of them have some kind of right to stay, for example they got married to an American, or they got a green card while they're here, they would have to go to court to show that they don't have to leave. So I think this judge has gotten it backwards and I expect that ultimately a higher court will reverse her.
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MACCALLUM: Yeah, these policies were originally designed to be person-by-person, case-by-case, if you have a right to be here, grant parole. This mass parole, as you point out, does not necessarily hold up.