- President Donald Trump is expected to sign executive orders reducing the size of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments on Monday.
- The monuments have shifted in size between administrations, with Trump reducing them in 2017 and President Joe Biden restoring their original boundaries in 2021.
- Environmental groups and Utah officials are divided over the potential reduction, with critics threatening legal challenges and supporters seeking more local control.
Utah
As Trump presses to remove humanitarian parolees, some in Utah have already left on their own
SALT LAKE CITY — Some Venezuelans in Utah, thanks to a humanitarian parole program launched under President Joe Biden, have already known their days were likely numbered.
As such, the Trump administration’s announcement on Thursday that it is immediately revoking their work authorization and permission to be in the country may not have come as such a shock. Patricia Quiñonez of Utahzolanos, a digital media outlet that caters to the Venezuelan community, said some who received preliminary notices on the matter last April have already left on their own, as sought by the Trump administration.
“They had their passports, they bought their tickets and they left,” said Quiñonez, with some returning to Venezuela and others going to places like Colombia or Spain. “At first, they were worried they’d be deported, and they couldn’t control the decision. That’s why they decided to go on their own before becoming deportable.”
At the same time, South Jordan immigration attorney Christopher Vizcardo said since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s initial notice last March ending the parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, many have investigated other options allowing them to remain.
“I’ve had a lot of consultations lately of people trying to find other options. Some people, for example, married a U.S. citizen and have the possibility of getting a green card through that,” he said, referencing the informal name of the U.S. identity card granted to those with legal permanent residency. “Some people are seeking asylum, which is definitely also a valid option.”
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President Donald Trump has made the detention and deportation of immigrants in the country illegally a priority. At the same time, he has dismantled immigration programs launched under Biden — including the humanitarian parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans — to push immigrants out. The program benefits around 532,000 people around the country, and in Utah, most beneficiaries come from Venezuela, according to Vizcardo.
“Ending the CHNV parole programs, as well as the paroles of those who exploited it, will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety and a return to America first,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of homeland security, said in a statement Thursday. McLaughlin charged that those benefitting from the humanitarian program were “poorly vetted” and that their presence “undercut American workers.”
Since Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last March first announced the program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans would be ended, it’s been the focus of a court challenge by immigrant advocates trying to keep it intact. The U.S. Supreme Court on May 30, however, ruled that the Trump administration may revoke the temporary legal status even as the court challenge continues, precipitating Thursday’s announcement.
The Department of Homeland Security said in its statement that it had started sending “termination notices” to those paroled into the country under the program.
“The messages informed the illegal aliens both their parole is terminated, and their parole-based employment authorization is revoked — effective immediately,” reads the statement. The department, it continues, “is now notifying parole recipients if they have not obtained lawful status to remain in the U.S., they must leave immediately.”
As the issue has already been the focus of public debate, neither Quiñonez nor Vizcardo reported an immediate outcry from impacted immigrants. “I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before we start getting phone calls about that,” Vizcardo said.
At this stage, Vizcardo said most of those impacted have opted to seek asylum as a means of remaining. Given conditions in Venezuela, governed by President Nicolás Maduro, a socialist who critics say has persecuted political foes, they have valid claims and a “legitimate fear of return.”
Like Quiñonez, though, Vizcardo said some have also voluntarily left the country, an option the Department of Homeland Security endorses. Figuring in decisions to self-deport have been concerns of being forcibly deported by immigration authorities to a third country, like El Salvador, and the threat of being separated from family.
Those she knows who voluntarily left “couldn’t live under the cloud of fear,” Quiñonez said.
Spain is a consideration, she said, because it’s easier for Venezuelans to legally enter the country.
“It’s easy compared to the United States to get a work permit. You arrive and ask for asylum and they give you a work permit six months later and two years later, you can get residency,” she said.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Not only the Utah that we are today, but the Utah that we can choose to become.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gabriel Meneses makes one of the limited edition flags for the United States 250th anniversary at Colonial Flag in Sandy on Monday, June 1, 2026.
President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order on Monday afternoon shrinking the size of two national monuments in Utah, which currently cover a combined 5,094 square miles, the Deseret News confirmed on background with a Utah source.
The two national monuments — Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears — have oscillated in size through the previous several presidential administrations.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was created by President Bill Clinton in September 1996. Bears Ears National Monument was created by President Barack Obama in December 2016. Both designations received a mixed reception among Utahns.
In 2017, Trump reduced Bears Ears by about 85% and Grand Staircase by about 46%.
Then when former President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he restored them to their original sizes.
Trump is expected to sign the executive orders in the Oval Office on Monday at 4:30 EST.
In a statement to the Deseret News on Friday, the White House said, “Any policy announcement will come directly from the President. This reporting about potential executive orders is pure speculation.”
National monument designations place restrictions on what recreational and economic activity residents and visitors can do on the land. The designation also prohibits anyone from pursuing new mining claims, oil and gas leasing, coal exploration or new commercial infrastructure projects.
However, the Bureau of Land Management previously found that Bears Ears and Grand Staircase have little to offer in terms of oil and gas potential, the Deseret News previously reported.
For nearly three decades since Clinton designated the first monument, Utah’s federal delegation has asked for reductions in land size for more local control, recreation and grazing.
Recently, Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy challenged the monument’s resource management plan to return to a plan the first Trump administration outlined in 2020 with help from local Utahns.
However, her bill died after missing a key deadline to make it to the Senate for a vote.
People react to the potential land reduction
Based on an initial report by ABC4, environmental groups are already vocalizing their disapproval over a potential reduction of monument land.
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Executive Director Scott Braden described the potential executive order as “unlawful, unwise and unacceptable,” in a press release sent to the Deseret News.
“This action will only bring uncertainty and chaos to places that should instead be protected for their rich biodiversity, unique geology, and remarkable cultural values,” he wrote. Braden said SUWA was preparing to fight the executive order through lawsuits or by lobbying in Congress.
On X, former Utah state Sen. Nate Blouin referenced the land reduction in conjunction with the Babylon Fire, which as of Friday is 25% contained and has covered more than 100,000 acres in southeastern Utah.
“As the largest wildfire in the U.S. burns pristine landscapes in southeastern Utah, Trump is threatening to shrink both Grand Staircase & Bears Ears National Monuments,” Blouin wrote. “This unprecedented move is happening without input from the region’s ancestral inhabitants.
PROVO — The preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson is expected to wrap up Friday morning in Provo. But it will still be several weeks before a decision is made on whether there is enough probable cause to bind him over for trial.
Robinson, 23, is charged with 10 crimes, the most serious being aggravated murder, in the death of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed on the campus of Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025. A preliminary hearing is held to determine whether there is sufficient probable cause to go to trial on the charges levied against a defendant.
The Utah County Attorney’s Office finished calling their witnesses to testify on Thursday. Robinson’s defense team, who have already called two forensic experts from the FBI and ATF to testify, are expected to call one more on Friday before resting. Robinson has been attempting to cast doubt on the reliability of DNA testing, arguing that test results are subjective.
Prosecutors have objected several times to the line of questioning, arguing that it falls well outside the bounds of what is needed for a preliminary hearing. Even 4th District Judge Tony Graf warned defense attorney Michael Burt on Thursday during one line of questioning, “I feel we are exiting the orbit of probable cause.”
At the end of a preliminary hearing, both sides typically give closing arguments, and the judge decides if there is enough evidence for a defendant to proceed to trial. On Thursday, Graf granted a defense motion for each side to first submit briefs summarizing their arguments. The state will submit its brief by July 28, followed by the defense’s reply on Aug. 11 and the state’s rebuttal on Aug. 18. After that, another hearing will be held on Sept. 1 for both sides to present their cases in court.
Also on Thursday, portions of the video interview of Robinson’s roommate and boyfriend at the time of Kirk’s death, Lance Twiggs, were shown to the courtroom after much debate.
In addition, screenshots of the text messages exchanged between Twiggs and Robinson, a note Robinson left for Twiggs and messages on Discord that Robinson allegedly sent to his friend group prior to turning himself in, were all displayed in court.
For each piece of evidence introduced during the week-long hearing, Graf has had to decide:
- Whether to admit that evidence into the record;
- Whether that evidence should be shown to everyone in the courtroom;
- Whether that evidence can be filmed by the livestream camera broadcasting the hearing.
Robinson’s defense team remains adamant that broadcasting evidence to people outside the courtroom will jeopardize their client’s right to a fair trial by prejudging a future jury pool. Prosecutors want the evidence shown to everyone for the sake of transparency. Graf has compromised on several pieces of evidence by allowing them to be displayed to people in the courtroom but not on the livestream feed.
The extended debates over what evidence can be shown to the public and what is only viewed by attorneys and the judge have prompted Jeff Neiman, the attorney for Erika Kirk and the Kirk family, to address the courtroom several times, both in person and in a briefing filed Wednesday night, calling on the court to make all evidence public.
“For 10 months, the victim’s family has waited for this preliminary hearing. Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, and his grieving parents traveled to this courtroom for one reason: to be present at these proceedings and to bear witness to the evidence concerning the death of their husband and son. At certain points throughout the preliminary hearing, the Kirk family sat in the room while evidence was admitted but not presented for their viewing. They were present in body, yet denied the very thing their presence was meant to secure: their ability to meaningfully observe the preliminary hearing,” Neiman said. “The victim’s family’s position is simple. At a minimum, every exhibit entered into evidence during the preliminary hearing must be visible to every person lawfully present in the courtroom.”
Erika Kirk and Charlie Kirk’s parents have been in the courtroom all week for the preliminary hearing.
At Neiman’s request, Graf agreed that at the end of court on Friday, he will show to the courtroom only the enhanced UVU surveillance video allegedly showing Robinson’s movements across the roof of the Losee Center and when he drops off the roof and runs to a wooded area off Campus Drive. The video includes moments in which film editors zoom in on the alleged gunman and impose a red circle around him to make it easier to view. The video was originally submitted as evidence but was only shown to Graf and attorneys.
Friday’s hearing begins at 9 a.m. Watch it livestreamed here:
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