The freezing of a controversial Biden parole program, which allows tens of thousands of migrants to travel into the U.S. each month, due to new revelations about fraud on the sponsor side is already building pressure on the program – with conservatives calling for it to be scrapped altogether.
The Department of Homeland Security has temporarily paused the issuing of advance travel authorizations for the program – which allows up to 30,000 nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) to travel into the U.S. each month and enter legally under the administration’s use of parole if they meet certain conditions, Fox News Digital first reported on Friday.
“Shut it down permanently,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on Friday. “This program should have never existed in the first place. It’s just another way the Biden-Harris administration has welcomed hundreds of thousands of aliens into our country, unchecked.”
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“More evidence of another failed Biden-Harris border policy. The only thing surprising is that they’re admitting it,” Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., said on X.
“Shut down the illegal CHNV parole program permanently and deport every single illegal alien, especially those the Biden/Harris regime has let in through this scheme,” Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said on X.
A congressional source had told Fox News Digital the pause came in mid-July after an internal report unearthed large amounts of fraud in applications for those sponsoring the applicants. DHS said the pause was occurring as it reviewed sponsor applications. The focus is on issues with supporter filings, and not with the filings from the beneficiaries of the program themselves.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks on Capitol Hill, on April 10. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)
“DHS has review mechanisms in place to detect and prevent fraud and abuse in our immigration processes. DHS takes any abuse of its processes very seriously,” a DHS spokesperson said. “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.”
“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,” they said.
The program allows those eligible to enter legally if they have a supporter in the U.S. and passed biographic and biometric vetting. While it doesn’t provide flights and migrants arrange their own travel, it allows them to have work permits and live in the U.S. for two years. It was rolled out in early 2023.
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A migrant flight takes off to Chicago from Texas on Dec. 19, 2023. (Gov. Greg Abbott)
The pause came after an internal report found that forms from those applying to be supporters for the program included information like Social Security numbers and ZIP codes being used hundreds of times.
Parts of the report shared with Fox News Digital by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a conservative immigration group, showed that 100,948 forms were filled out by 3,218 serial sponsors – those whose number appears on 20 or more forms.
House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., said the report “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 the inadmissible aliens seeking entry, but those attempting to sponsor them,” Green continued. “We issued a subpoena last year to compel documents regarding this program, and while DHS partially complied, the department remains delinquent in producing certain documents and communications relating to the program.”
Speaker Mike Johnson called for the program to be shut down. (Getty Images)
“This is exactly what happens when you create an unlawful mass-parole program in order to spare your administration the political embarrassment and bad optics of overrun borders. The Biden-Harris administration should terminate the CHNV program immediately.”
Conservatives have long alleged that the program abuses parole authority – which allows for foreign nationals to be let in for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit on a case-by-case basis. A coalition of Republican states filed a lawsuit against the program, but it was struck down by a district judge earlier this year.
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Gene Hamilton, vice president and general counsel of America First Legal, which led the lawsuit, said the program “is not just a flagrant violation of the immigration laws established by Congress, but it is a recipe for fraud upon the American people and the American government.”
“The Biden administration knew the risks associated with the fraud in this program, but it did it anyway,” Hamilton said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Nearly half a million illegal aliens are in the U.S. already via this program. The Biden-Harris open borders agenda has no limiting principle, and this program needs to be shut down permanently.”
DHS stressed to Fox News Digital that CHNV beneficiaries are “thoroughly screened and vetted prior to their arrival to the United States.”
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“The multi-layered screening and vetting for advanced travel authorizations is separate from the screening of U.S.-based supporters,” the spokesperson continued. “DHS has not identified issues of concern relating to the screening and vetting of beneficiaries.”
The White House, in a statement, said that “any report of abuse of lawful processes is concerning and should be investigated thoroughly.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to holding accountable individuals who commit fraud,” they added.
Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report.