The Biden administration's strategy to end the crisis at the southern border by using humanitarian parole to admit migrants through “legal channels” remains under intense scrutiny as officials clarify how many migrants have been allowed into the country under the program amid the ongoing debate over Haitian migrants.
The Biden administration last year expanded two avenues for migrants to legally enter the U.S. and be released on parole, seeking to get control of the worsening border crisis: One allows migrants to use the CBP One app to make appointments at ports of entry, allowing up to 1,450 migrants a day to enter.
The other is the Parole Process for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, a program that allows sponsored migrants to apply for permission without going to the border and, if approved and vetted, enter the U.S. by air or transit. Up to 30,000 people per month are allowed into the program.
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO – MAY 23, 2023: Migrants wait for an appointment through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One-Stop Application in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, as they stand in line to enter a shelter set up by authorities for migrants. (Photo by Christian Torres Chavez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The administration released statistics on Monday showing that around 530,000 nationals from those four countries have been granted parole until the end of August 2024.
The program was temporarily suspended in July after an internal report uncovered multiple instances of fraud by sponsors who helped migrants enter the country using the program. The Department of Homeland Security announced last month that it had resumed the approval process after implementing new safeguards.
The misconduct revelations have prompted renewed calls from Republican lawmakers for the administration to abolish the parole system, arguing that the Biden administration's use of the system is unlawful and violates a law that allows parole to be used on a “case-by-case” basis only for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public interest.
DHS has defended its use of the parole system, saying it has dramatically reduced crime encounters.
“All CHNV beneficiaries undergo thorough screening and identity checks by CBP prior to their arrival in the United States and, once they purchase their commercial air ticket, must meet other eligibility criteria to ensure safe, orderly and lawful travel to the United States,” Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on Monday.
“Since Homeland Security implemented these safe, orderly and lawful processes, encounters of CHNV nationals between ports of entry have decreased by 99 percent,” the statement said.
CBP also said that about 813,000 people have used the CBP One app to schedule parole appointments at ports of entry, including 44,700 appointments in August.
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WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 17: U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is interviewed by Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein during a Washington Economic Club event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on May 17, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
This means that more than 1.3 million people have been released on parole in less than two years since the two programs began.
Those brought there are screened and then allowed to stay for up to two years and work in the US, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sources told Fox News that the agency does not have the manpower or resources to track down and deport so many people once their stay expires.
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The administration says its strategy of expanding legal routes into the country while imposing “penalties” on illegal entry has led to a sharp decline in encounters at the southern border. There were 107,503 border encounters in August, down from 232,963 in August of last year. Encounters have fallen by more than 50% since June, when President Biden signed an executive order restricting people crossing the border if encounters reached certain levels. Officials have called on Congress to provide more funding and broader reforms to fix what they call a “broken system.”
President Joe Biden withdrew his reelection bid in late July and endorsed Vice President Harris as his successor. (Yuri Grypas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“CBP continues to implement the Border Security Interim Final Rule, imposing tough penalties on illegal entry, and encounter rates between ports of entry remain at their lowest levels in recent years,” CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement Monday.
But the use of parole has come under new scrutiny not only because of revelations of fraud in the CHNV program, but also because of controversy over the surge in Haitian immigrants to towns like Springfield, Ohio, which in recent years has seen an influx of 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants into its 60,000-plus population.
The application of the parole system was criticized by House Republicans in a report first obtained by Fox News Digital on Wednesday, which charged that the administration has “blithely ignored this law by granting parole to millions of illegal immigrants and creating parole programs for various nationality groups, both of which violate the law.”
DHS has consistently defended its parole system, winning a lawsuit in March against a Republican-led coalition of states that challenged the law.
“This process for safe and orderly entry into the United States has significantly reduced the number of these individuals encountered at our southern border,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. “It is a key component of our efforts to address the unprecedented levels of migration across our hemisphere, and other countries around the world are looking to it as a model for addressing the challenges of rising illegal immigration that they are also experiencing.”
Additionally, there are a number of crimes allegedly committed by people who have entered the country on parole, including a Haitian migrant accused of abusing a boy in Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Mexico released a video last week of buses transporting migrants to Mexico on CBP One bookings. American border. Former President Trump also renewed his pledge this week to end the CBP One app and various uses of parole by the Biden administration.
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“As President I will immediately end immigration into America,” Trump said in a social media post on Sunday.
“We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal immigration, terminate the CBP One App, the app used to smuggle illegal immigrants, revoke deportation exemptions, suspend refugee resettlement, and return illegal immigrants to their home countries (also known as re-immigration),” he said.
Fox News' Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
