The Biden-Harris Administration has terminated a highly questionable program that was permitting tens of thousands of migrants to fly into the U.S. from four countries each month, after revelations about extensive fraud came to light.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) halted the program, which allows for as many as 30,000 migrants a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter under the administration’s parole system — something some critics contend is illegal.
A separate internal report found high levels of fraud in the applications from people who were sponsoring those migrants. The report continued, noting that the investigation had placed an emphasis on problems with supporter filings rather than those from beneficiaries of the program themselves.
In a statement, the DHS spokesperson noted that hunting down abuse in this system is a top priority of her department: “Where fraud is identified, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will investigate and litigate applicable cases in immigration court and make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice,” the spokesperson claimed. “Out of an abundance of caution, DHS has temporarily paused the issuance of advanced travel authorizations for new beneficiaries while it undertakes a review of supporter applications. DHS will restart application processing as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards.”
The report also found that the social security numbers, addresses, and telephone numbers in the applications were ones used many times. The records showed, in all, 100,948 forms were filed by 3,218 serial sponsors—individuals whose names appeared on at least 20 reports.
In addition, 24 (less than three percent) from the list of names that appear most often among all suspected persons were matched to deceased individuals. Some 19,000 forms were claimed to use the same addresses 124-739 times; one of these was for a storage unit. A phone number appeared on more than 2,000 forms and sponsor zip codes were invalid on neary another 3,0oo of them.
The findings, said House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN), “vindicates every warning we have ever issued about the unlawful CHNV mass-parole program.”
It also exposes the lie by administration officials, like now-impeached DHS Secretary Mayorkas about the quality and extent of the vetting process–not just for inadmissible aliens seeking entry but those attempting to sponsor them, he argued.
Green was even more critical of the program, calling it illegal and intended to avoid “political embarrassment and bad optics of overrun borders.”
Chad Wolfe, the former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security said that is illegal.
“This is not a surprise and was predictable. We’ve been told each parole application was being individually evaluated. That was an outstanding lie and the result is unacceptable,” he posted on X. “Time and again Biden-Harris immigration actions run counter to our national security. There needs to be significant oversight of USCIS from the DHS OIG and Congress.”
