AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) According to the Associated Press, it was announced in March that the Department of Homeland Security will be terminating the humanitarian parole for thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.

Kevenson and Sherlie Jean are just two of the thousands asked to depart the country by April 24; at that point, their legal status will be revoked.

This is following President Donald Trump’s decision to end the humanitarian parole program.

Under the Biden administration, Kevenson and Sherlie Jean were approved through the humanitarian parole program in June of 2023. The program granted them a two-year permit to enter the country and allowed them to work as well.

To be part of the program requires financial sponsors, which Kim and Jared Snelgrooes took on.

“When President Biden announced his program in January of 2023, my husband and I discussed it, and we immediately applied for Kevenson and Sherlie, and we believed in them. We believed that they had the character and were willing to do the hard work that it would take to succeed in America,” said Kim Snelgrooes. “We felt like this was a very easy way for us to help give them a chance at a safe life and to find success for themselves.”

Since entering the country, Kevenson and Sherlie have been working in the Panhandle and part of the community.

“We follow laws, and we pay taxes, and we are good people. We have a community that supports us here. This is not only us that have the same this problem,” said Sherlie Jean.

Jean added that after hearing the news that they would have to leave the country in just 20 days, her initial feeling was fear.

“I am terrified of going back to Haiti because it’s not just unsafe, but it’s a war zone where people are kidnapped and killed. I am afraid of being rapped, killed, and kidnapped, living in fear every single day,” Jean added. “There’s no government to protect us, no future to hope for, going back to Haiti is a death sentence, and we’re asking a chance to have a better life here.”

Since getting the notification, Jean and her husband have been working on their case for asylum, but it has been a long journey.

“The application is long and it is hard, and for someone whose English is their second language, I do not know how they could do it on their own. I truly don’t. There are pages of questions where you are required to document how and why you feel threatened, or that your life feels in peril,” said Snelgrooes. “But you can’t just say this. You then have to prove with documentary evidence, that this fear is justified when you were raped in Haiti, or you were kidnapped in Haiti, or you are held at gunpoint. There is no police force to go and file a police report.”

Since the news Snelgrooes has been reaching out to local representatives to see what could be done for Kevenson and Sherlie.

“I have been in close contact with both Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Ronny Jackson’s offices. Both of them have been very responsive. Both believe in the need for this program because of the impacts that it is going to have on our region, explained Snelgrooes. “We have a large legal immigrant population here. These members of this population are contributing to our economy by holding jobs at places that, honestly, many Americans would be unwilling to work.”

But, Snelgrooes added that since this humanitarian parole program was under the direction of the president and dismissed under the discretion of the president, there are very few legal resources to reverse the decision.

“The only thing that we believe that we can have is the President to put this humanitarian parole program back into place,” said Snelgrooes.

With over half a million immigrants being part of this program, it affects all of them, like another Haitian family that the Jeans met in Dumas.

“We have visited a Haitian church in Dumas. There are many Haitian friends who are in the same situation, and we are all afraid because we know what we’re gonna face. Going back to Haiti, it’s not deportation, it’s a death sentence,” said Jean.