The Biden administration has pumped the brakes on a controversial program that has flown hundreds of thousands of migrants into the country following an internal report of rampant fraud.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) paused a mass-parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, otherwise known as CHNV, a spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation on Friday. Since its creation under the Biden administration, the CHNV program has allowed thousands of migrants from these countries to legally enter the U.S. each month after meeting certain parole guidelines.
“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,” a DHS spokesperson told the DCNF. “DHS will restart application processing as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards.”
The spokesperson noted that DHS takes fraud “very seriously” and added that wherever fraud is uncovered “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will investigate and litigate applicable cases in immigration court and make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.”
Fox News first reported on DHS’ decision to put a hold on the CHNV program.
The internal report was obtained by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for more strict immigration policies.
The report found that 100,948 forms had been filled out by just 3,218 sponsors; 24 of the 1,000 most used Social Security numbers by sponsors belonged to a dead person; and an IP address located in Tijuana, Mexico was used more than 1,300 times, among other examples.
Additionally, many sponsors did not list their income, and those that did reveal their income did not meet financial threshold to support the number of parolees they intended to sponsor.
“This admission by the Biden-Harris administration vindicates every warning we have ever issued about the unlawful CHNV mass-parole program,” House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green stated about the internal audit. “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.”
“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,” Green continued. “The Biden-Harris administration should terminate the CHNV program immediately.”
The CHNV program was first announced for Venezuelans in October 2022, allowing a limited number of them to travel into the U.S. if they had not previously entered the country illegally, had an American sponsor and passed other vetting processes. The Biden administration expanded the program in January 2023 to include Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans, giving them work permits and two-year authorization to reside in the U.S.
Roughly half a million inadmissible aliens have arrived at U.S. ports of entry through the CHNV program since January 2023, according to the House Homeland Security Committee.
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