A top House Republican dismissed the significance of the Harris-Biden administration’s Friday tweak to a migrant parole program, barring more than 500,000 migrants from four nations from extending their temporary legal status.
The change, announced by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, will force migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela enrolled in the program to self deport or face removal proceedings after their two-year parole terms expire.
However, some will be able to remain in the US by simply enrolling in different federal programs offering legal status – leading to doubts about the consequences of the sudden change.
“This move is yet another optics-driven smokescreen from the Biden-Harris administration,” Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told The Post.
“There are numerous other ways these inadmissible aliens could be — and likely will be — allowed to stay, including through applying for asylum or Temporary Protected Status,” the congressman said. “Even if they don’t, however, given ICE’s low enforcement rates under this administration, most simply will not be priorities for removal.”
Under the controversial mass parole program, migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) who meet certain criteria have been allowed to fly into US ports of entry, where they receive work permits and authorization to remain in the country for two years.
Until Friday, migrants could apply to extend their parole terms.
“As initially stated in the Federal Register notices, a grant of parole under these processes was for a temporary period of up to two years,” a US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson said in a statement.
“This two-year period was intended to enable individuals to seek humanitarian relief or other immigration benefits for which they may be eligible, and to work and contribute to the United States,” the statement continued. “Those who do not have pending immigration benefits or who have not been granted an immigration benefit during their two-year parole period will need to depart the United States prior to the expiration of their authorized parole period or may be placed in removal proceedings after the period of parole expires.”
The CHNV parole program, which has been plagued by rampant fraud, will continue to accept new applications for temporary legal status.
The most recent Department of Homeland documents provided to Green’s committee indicate that there were some 1.6 million migrants waiting for approval to fly into the US via the parole program as of October 2023.
The program was halted for about a month earlier this year after an internal review found that thousands of sponsors for the migrants were listing fake social security numbers or phone numbers and using the same physical address for thousands of parole applications.
“Some 100 addresses were listed on over 19,000 forms,” the USCIS review found, and “many applications were submitted by the same IP address.”
The House homeland security panel chairman told The Post that he has serious doubts that the Harris-Biden administration can even keep track of when parole terms are up for migrants in the CHNV program — let alone deport them.
“Remember, a recent DHS Inspector General report found that the Biden-Harris administration still has no plan to remove the 77,000 Afghan nationals who were paroled in 2021 and 2022, and no effective process for monitoring parole expiration,” Green said. “So, it is hard to believe the Biden-Harris administration has a plan to remove a far greater number of inadmissible Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan nationals paroled into the country at their direction.”
