According to a research organization in Washington, U.S. officials have not released airport arrival statistics for the 320,000 immigrants who were approved under President Biden’s immigration program.
Republican presidential contender Donald Trump and others are using a Biden administration initiative meant to lessen chaotic migrant arrivals at the southern border of the United States as a political football, portraying it as a covert effort to send hundreds of thousands of migrants into the nation.
On January 5, 2023, the White House announced the continuation of the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) parole program. Under the provisions of U.S. immigration law, citizens of those four nations may seek for legal entrance into the country from overseas under the humanitarian parole program.
The campaign, according to White House officials, is a component of the administration’s efforts to deter unauthorized entry along the southern border of the United States. After demonstrating that they have financial sponsors in the United States and passing background checks, applicants are allowed to enter the nation. Those who are granted parole are able to reside and work lawfully in the US for a limited time.
The program is based on an earlier Venezuelan program and the Ukrainian program.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a Washington-based organization that supports limiting immigration to the US, released a paper that served as the foundation for Trump’s assertion.
The CIS claims that since the program’s inception, the administration has concealed the locations of the 320,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who have arrived at American airports.
According to the article, the migrants landed at forty-three U.S. airports; however, the administration refused to provide a list of them, citing FISA exemptions for critical operational data.
Trump remarked at a speech on Tuesday, “Today it was announced that 325,000 individuals were flown in from unknown regions – migrants flew in, without crossing borders, it was astonishing.” “I stated there had to be a mistake. 325,000 migrants were flown over the borders and into our nation by them.”
The American Immigration Council’s policy director, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, said VOA that in order to participate in the program, a person must obtain a travel authorization, purchase their own airfare, and board a commercial aircraft. The government of the United States does not reimburse immigrants for their airfare.
“The U.S. government conducts background checks on all parole applicants before granting status. The notion that recipients of this government program are “untested” or “illegal immigrants” is patently false, according to Reichlin-Melnick.
In addition, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman informed VOA that individuals with authorized applications and travel authorization need to buy a ticket on a commercial airline in order to enter the country, and they would be subject to screening and inspection upon arrival at the port of entry.
The program caps the number of admissions to 30,000 per month.
Legislative Power:
Using the parole authority that Congress had granted him in 1952, President Joe Biden approved the scheme.
This gives the government the authority to admit individuals “for urgent humanitarian grounds or significant public benefit on a case-by-case basis.”
In a speech on January 5, 2023, Biden stated that an applicant needs to have a US-based legal sponsor.
Following that, the candidate must “pass stringent background checks, apply from outside the United States, and in the interim not cross the border illegally,” according to Biden.
“They can utilize the same application, the CBP One application, to present themselves at a port of entry and be granted permission to work lawfully in the United States for a period of two years if they apply and their application is accepted. That is the procedure.
According to Leon Fresco, a former U.S. Justice Department official and immigration attorney, the CBP One app “is essentially an organized approach to present yourself at a port of entry,” he told VOA.
Status Legal:
Neither permanent residency nor U.S. citizenship can be obtained through the program.
But individuals can change their immigration status from a temporary permission to a permanent one, according to Fresco, such as a visa or sponsorship via a family member in the United States, which might result in a green card, also known as permanent residence.
Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, Cubans may apply for permanent residency after a year of continuous residence in the United States.
“This implies that after a year, if [a Cuban] is accepted or granted lawful parole into [the United States], they will apply for a green card,” explained Fresco. “Venezuelans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans must ask for asylum, get married to an American citizen, or find another way.”
For the two years that they are in the parole program, those in it are eligible to apply for work permits. They do not lack proper documentation, possess valid immigrant status, according to Fresco.
Monthly The overall numbers:
Every month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection releases data from the CHNV initiative. Over 386,000 individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela had lawfully entered the country as of the end of February.
A Department of Homeland Security official told VOA that “these processes are part of the administration’s approach to combine increased legal paths with greater repercussions to deter irregular migration and have prevented hundreds of thousands of people from traveling illegally.” “Chernobyl’s probation procedures are open to the public; there is no hidden program as claimed.”
In a briefing from September, David Bier, the libertarian Cato Institute’s associate director of immigration policy, stated that the parole program “has altered migration to the United States.”
“Instead of traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border, migrants sought sponsors and applied to enter legally due to the broad accessibility of these paths and the speedy adjudications,” Bier wrote.
More than any previous president, Biden has exercised his power over parole, a practice that Trump has strongly condemned as “an unacceptable abuse” and promised to stop if he wins back the presidency.