When the Biden administration is told that they are not allowed to do something, they find a way to work around it. In this case, Biden is flying in immigrants who are not admissible for asylum and putting them in his migrant parole program.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provided internal data to the House Homeland Security Committee Republicans after the committee issued a subpoena for the data. More than 50 cities in the United States received hundreds of thousands of migrants, flown in via Biden's controversial parole program for four nationalities. Over 80% of them were flown into four Florida airports.
In eight months from January through August 2023, about 200,000 migrants flew into the United States. 80% (161,562) flew into Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Tampa Bay.
The policy was first announced for Venezuelans in October 2022, which allowed a limited number to fly or travel directly into the U.S. as long as they had not entered illegally, had a sponsor in the U.S. already, and passed certain biometric and biographical vetting. The program does not itself facilitate flights, and migrants are responsible for their own travel.
In January 2023, the administration announced that the program was expanding to include Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Cubans and that the program would allow up to 30,000 people per month into the U.S. It allows for migrants to receive work permits and a two-year authorization to live in the U.S. and was announced alongside an expansion of Title 42 expulsions to include those nationalities. By the end of February 2024, more than 400,000 nationals have arrived under the parole program, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
The program is called the CHNV parole program. The Biden administration created it in January 2023 to allow up to 30,000 migrants from those four countries each month to bypass the southern border entirely. They fly in directly from foreign countries if they have a sponsor in the U.S. and are vetted and approved for travel. They take commercial flights and pay for it themselves. Once here, they can apply for a work permit. Taxpayers are not paying for the flights.
The Biden administration considers the parole program a lawful pathway for entry. The numbers from the parole program are not included in the monthly Border Patrol reports.
We're talking about at least 404,000 migrants since the program began.
Legal challenges have failed in court. Earlier this year, a judge ruled that Texas didn't have standing to sue so the case was dismissed. There are other pending lawsuits. The office of Florida Governor DeSantis said that the parole program is unlawful and is an abuse of constitutional authority. Florida is suing the Biden administration to shut it down.
The Biden administration thinks the program is lawful and provides an incentive to not cross the border illegally.
In reality, the parole program allows hundreds of thousands of inadmissible migrants to arrive in Florida and other places in the United States and remain forever. Plus they get the bonus of a work permit.
This is Biden's America. Laws don't matter.
DHS Secretary Mayorkas revealed in the subpoena response that as of October 2023, about 1.6M applicants were waiting for approval to fly into the United States via the program. He admitted that they were inadmissible. "All individuals paroled into the United States are, by definition, inadmissible, including those paroled under the CHNV processes."
House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green calls the program a slight of hand. "Secretary Mayorkas’ CHNV parole program is an unlawful sleight of hand used to hide the worsening border crisis from the American people."
Twenty states are suing the administration, claiming the program amounts to a new visa program. The president doesn't have the authority to do it.
This is what it has come to in America. The president, who has a top obligation to keep the homeland secure and Americans safe, is rushing to bring in as many ineligible people as possible, in case he loses the election in November.
The House had to subpoena the administration for data. Remember when Joe Biden promised to have the most transparent administration ever? Good times, good times.
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