It’s not clear how many refugees in the Spokane area will now lose their legal status to be in the U.S. following a decision Friday by the U.S. Supreme Court to allow President Donald Trump to end parole for roughly 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. But the news is devastating for those who had been fighting for them locally.

“This is just genocide. It’s like sending somebody to death,” said Rev. Luc Jasmin Jr., the founder of Jasmin Ministries, a multicultural church serving the Haitian and African community in Spokane.

More than 500,000 refugees from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who passed a background check and had a sponsor in the United States had been allowed to enter the U.S. and request parole under the Biden-era program.

In March, Secretary of Homel

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