FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Homeland Republicans ask Secretary Noem for Info on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Unlawful use of Mass Parole for Inadmissible Aliens
WASHINGTON—This week, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN), Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Josh Brecheen (R-OK), and Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, renewing requests for information on the Biden-Harris administration’s unlawful use of mass-parole programs to release inadmissible aliens into the country. This letter follows numerous unsatisfied requests from the previous administration and two related subpoenas.
The Chairmen requested documents showing the immigration status and number of inadmissible aliens released through numerous parole programs during the previous administration, including the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parole program (CHNV) and the CBP One app. The Chairmen also requested a list of the non-profit organizations that submitted applications to provide sponsorship for inadmissible aliens in the CHNV parole program. Read the full letter here and highlights below.
Read more in the Washington Examiner via Anna Giaritelli.
In the letter, the Chairmen wrote, “The Biden-Harris administration abused its limited authority to grant parole to inadmissible aliens en masse through programs like the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parole program (CHNV), which allowed inadmissible aliens entry partially on the basis that a ‘sponsor’ agreed to financially support them. The Biden-Harris administration went to great lengths to maintain this unconstitutional abuse of the Secretary’s parole authority despite indications that prospective sponsors were financing their income through illegal activities and were engaging in fraud.”
The Chairmen continued, “Additionally, the Biden-Harris administration established or expanded several other categorical parole programs, such as Operation Allies Welcome, and reestablished or expanded previously terminated parole programs, such as the Central American Minor program.”
The Chairmen conclude, “Under the Biden-Harris administration, the Department refused to respond to the Committee’s basic requests for information regarding parole programs, even after the Committee issued a subpoena. The Biden-Harris administration’s lack of transparency created challenges to the Committee’s ability to determine the full extent of the Biden-Harris administration’s use of parole, the fiscal consequences of each individual parole program, and whether the current state of parole requires additional statutory remedies.”
Background:
The Trump administration has formally ended the use of the CHNV program and retooled the CBP One app to aid in self-deportation. Through the Immigration and Nationality Act, DHS has the authority to grant parole to inadmissible aliens “on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.” Yet the Biden-Harris administration permitted at least 1.5 million otherwise inadmissible aliens to enter the United States through mass-parole programs over the last four years.
Last year, DHS paused travel authorizations for CHNV parolees due to massive fraud discovered among those applying to sponsor inadmissible aliens seeking entry. According to Fox News, “The internal report found that forms from those applying for the program included social security numbers, addresses, and phone numbers being used hundreds of times in some cases. … It also found that 24 of the 1,000 most used numbers belonged to a dead person. Meanwhile, 100 physical addresses were used between 124 and 739 times on over 19,000 forms.” The administration still chose to resume the program last August.
In April 2024, the Committee released documents obtained by subpoenaing DHS that identified over 50 airport locations, including the nation’s capital, where inadmissible aliens have been flown into the country and processed by DHS for release. Chairman Green subpoenaed DHS on August 22, 2023 and sent a follow-up letter to then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in September 2023, demanding compliance with the Committee’s requests for critical data and information regarding the CHNV parole program. The Committee first requested this information on April 27, 2023. According to produced documents, DHS admitted that none of these individuals have a legal basis to enter the country before being paroled through the program, stating, “All individuals paroled into the United States are, by definition, inadmissible, including those paroled under the CHNV Processes.”
In August 2023, the Washington Examiner confirmed that Mexican cartels were abusing the CBP One app by selling the use of a virtual private network (VPN) to hide the location of aliens, often advertised on social media. In October 2023, following months of stonewalling, DHS finally responded to multiple requests by the Committee regarding the app’s expanded use, revealing that 95.8 percent of all inadmissible aliens who scheduled appointments through the app during that time were ultimately issued a “Notice to Appear” and released into the United States on parole.
In addition to CHNV and CBP One app oversight, Chairman Green subpoenaed then-DHS Secretary Mayorkas in October 2023 for denying Congress information responsive to the Committee’s May 2023 request related to the vetting and screening of Afghan evacuees entering the United States since 2021. After the Biden administration’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the country became a breeding ground for foreign terrorist organizations under Taliban rule.
