|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Senators Katie Britt, R-Alabama, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, signed separate letters last week calling for the end of the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program for certain Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan nationals.
Britt — alongside Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and 15 other Republican senators — signed a letter calling for the end of the processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, or CHNV. The letter was sent on Sept. 10 to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
CHNV grants certain noncitizens from the four countries stay in the United States for up to two years, provided they have a financial supporter living in the U.S. and undergo security vetting.
The parole program began in January 2023 and provides up to 30,000 parole seekers a month advance travel authorization to the U.S. or a U.S. port of entry.
In a press release, Britt’s office wrote that the letter, “lists the catastrophic failures of the program, including incentivizing illegal migration, importing gang members and other dangerous violent criminals into the country, and evidence that tens of thousands of aliens were admitted pursuant to fraudulent applications.”
The letter cites the murder of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley as evidence of the program importing gang members into the states. Diego Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was charged with Riley’s murder and is an alleged affiliate of Venezuelan gang Tren de Arugua.
Ibarra crossed the southern border unlawfully, however, and was not a CHNV parole recipient.
The only crime cited in the letter that can be tied to a CHNV parolee, is the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl by a 26-year-old Haitian national in Rockland, Mass.
The letter also claims the program is illegal since it provides migrants a pathway for entry into the U.S. not authorized by Congress. It also claims that, by establishing the program based on a list of certain nationalities, CHNV is in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act, “which mandates parole be granted only on a case-by-case basis for significant public benefit or urgent humanitarian need.”
Parole programs have been used by both Democratic and Republican administrations for specific nationalities for 70 years. Examples include the parole of 170,000 Vietnamese immigrants following the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and the parole of tens of thousands of Cubans and Haitians during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift.
The letter says, “The broader context of the current border crisis, exacerbated by the Biden administration’s immigration policies, has resulted in a record number of illegal border crossings. This unprecedented surge has overwhelmed our border enforcement resources and heightened the risks associated with inadequate immigration controls.”
According to the DHS, the parole program seeks to alleviate the border crisis by providing legal pathways for those seeking refuge in the U.S. and includes, “significant consequences for those who fail to use those pathways.”
Individuals are made ineligible for parole if they have been removed from the U.S. within five years prior to applying for parole. Individuals are also ineligible if they have unlawfully crossed the Mexican or Panamanian border or were interdicted at sea seeking entry into the U.S. after the program was enacted for their country.
The announcement of CHNV came alongside increased security measures at the U.S.-Mexico border, as well.
Starting in January 2023, the Mexican government agreed to allow the U.S. to expel up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to Mexico each month. These individuals are subsequently prevented from requesting asylum under U.S. immigration law.
DHS also announced that it would be increasing and enhancing its use of expedited removal for migrants ineligible for asylum.
According to a report by the Center for American Progress, instances of irregular migration on the southern border amongst nationalities eligible for the parole program were “significantly reduced” after CHNV was instated.
Conservative media and politicians have repeatedly emphasized that the program uses commercial air travel to allow parole seekers entrance into the U.S., with Britt’s office referring to CHNV as an “illegal parole program flying migrants into U.S. Interior.”
While the program allows commercial flights to a U.S. port of entry or destination in the U.S., individuals eligible for parole must be able to financially support this travel to a U.S. Individuals seeking parole must also undergo inspection by Customs and Border Protection upon reaching their destination and may be denied parole if found to pose a threat to national security or public safety.
CHNV was temporarily halted by the DHS in mid-July after an internal report by the department’s Fraud and National Security Directorate found instances of blank entry fields, inoperable phone numbers, non-existent addresses or zip codes, social security numbers associated with dead people, repeat filers and sponsors that failed to report their income.
Citing a Federation For American Immigration Reform summary of the report, the letter claims that these abnormalities are indicative of “Massive Fraud” in the program. FAIR according to its website, “seeks to reduce overall immigration to a more normal level,” and has been designated an anti-immigrant hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Cato Institute immigration policy specialists David Bier and Alex Nowrasteth, on the other hand, wrote abnormalities in parole filings, “are not evidence of fraud—they are part and parcel of large administrative datasets, especially those compiled by the government.”
The program was reinstated in August, with DHS announcing that the vetting process would now include fingerprinting of applicants and closer reviews of the financial and criminal records of prospective sponsors.
The letter says these new measures are insufficient and that, “Limited diplomatic relations with Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, coupled with the lack of a functional government in Haiti, impede effective vetting of applicants.”
In a separate letter to Mayorkas, released on Sept. 12 and of which he was the sole signee, Tuberville also called for an end to CHNV, writing that the program has, “changed the landscape of this country forever, and rural communities across the nation will bear the brunt of this ill-conceived and harmful policy for decades.”
Tuberville describes CHNV as only requiring a “simple application process whereby no background check is conducted or visa is necessary to be admitted and work lawfully.”
Being granted parole under CHNV does not automatically grant an individual the right to work in the U.S. Right to work must be applied for separately upon approval of parole.
Tuberville in his letter focuses almost solely on the program’s admittance of Haitian nationals into the U.S. claiming, “Hundreds of Haitian children have entered local school systems, fluent only in Haitian-Creole, leaving teachers and administrators at a loss for how to manage their needs given onerous federal education requirements.”
