The top House Republican on Friday dismissed the importance of the Harris-Biden administration's adjustment to the immigrant parole program, which would bar the extension of temporary legal status for more than 500,000 immigrants from four countries.
Under the changes announced by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela enrolled in the program will face voluntary deportation or deportation proceedings after their two-year parole period expires. Become.
But some people are able to remain in the U.S. simply by enrolling in various federal programs that provide legal status, raising questions about the impact of the sudden change.
“This move is yet another optics smokescreen by the Biden-Harris administration,” Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told the Post.
“There are many other ways in which these inadmissible aliens could, and likely will, be allowed to remain, including by applying for asylum and temporary protection,” he said. said the lawmaker. “But even if they were not, most simply would not be a priority for removal given ICE’s low enforcement rates under the current administration.”
Under the controversial mass parole program, immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) who meet certain criteria are allowed to fly into U.S. ports of entry, where they obtain work permits and Receive a two-year residence permit.
Until Friday, immigrants can apply for an extension of their parole period.
“As originally stated in the Federal Register, parole grants under these procedures were temporary for up to two years,” a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson said in a statement.
“This two-year period is intended to allow individuals to seek humanitarian relief and other immigration benefits for which they are eligible, and to work and contribute to the United States,” the statement continued. “Persons who do not have immigration benefits pending or who have not received immigration benefits during their two-year parole period must leave the United States before the expiration of their authorized parole period or If not, he may be subject to deportation proceedings after his parole period ends.'' His parole period ends. ”
CHNV's parole program, plagued by rampant fraud, will continue to accept new applications for temporary legal status.
The latest Department of Homeland documents provided to the Green Committee show that as of October 2023, there were approximately 1.6 million immigrants in the parole program awaiting approval to enter the United States. There is.
The program closed earlier this year after an internal investigation found that thousands of immigrant sponsors had listed fake Social Security and phone numbers and used the same addresses on thousands of parole applications. It was suspended for one month.
The USCIS investigation found that “approximately 100 addresses were listed on more than 19,000 forms” and that “many applications were submitted with the same IP address.”
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee told the Post that he has serious doubts that the Harris-Biden administration will be able to track parole periods for immigrants 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 release 77,000 Afghan nationals on parole in 2021 and 2022, We also found that there was no effective process for monitoring,” Green said. “Therefore, it is hard to believe that the Biden-Harris administration plans to significantly expel Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans who are paroled and inadmissible at their direction.”
