DHS suspends parole program flights months before election

(The Center Square) – Three months before the November election in which Vice President Kamala Harris is the Democratic nominee for president, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says it is suspending a parole program she, as the president’s “border czar,” has overseen with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

DHS announced on Friday that it was suspending flights it had been using for years to bring Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans into the country, who otherwise do not qualify for legal entry under current law.

“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,” DHS spokeswoman Erin Heeter said in a statement.

Mayorkas created the “CHNV parole program” to fly in hundreds of thousands of CHNV parolees at the taxpayer’s expense. It’s one of more than a dozen issues identified by the U.S. House on Homeland Security as evidence to impeach Mayorkas, The Center Square first reported.

A coalition of 21 attorneys general, led by Texas, also sued to stop it, arguing it’s an “illegal visa system.” Federal judges and members of Congress also argue that it’s illegal.

An internal review from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services identified tens of thousands of potentially fraudulent CHNV applications. Foreign nationals released into the country used fake Social Security Numbers, fake phone numbers and listed the same physical address on nearly 20,000 applications, according to several news reports.

Mayorkas and other Biden administration officials have claimed those released into the country were “thoroughly vetted.” Multiple DHS Inspector General reports have found this not to be the case, including one that found no vetting was conducted at a major international airport prior to releasing them into the U.S., The Center Square reported.

Mayorkas, President Joe Biden and others have argued that illegal border crossings are down by not counting those being released through the parole program, The Center Square first reported. Instead of being counted as illegal border crossers between ports of entry, nearly half a million were flown into the country through the program contrary to federal law, The Center Square reported. They include 104,130 Cubans, 194,027 Haitians, 86,101 Nicaraguans, and 110,541 Venezuelans, according to recent U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

But these numbers are actually higher.

“As of mid-October 2023, there were 1.6 million inadmissible aliens awaiting travel authorizations through the CHNV program,” the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security found as part of an investigation into the program. It also discovered that DHS was using 50 airports worldwide to fly them in, The Center Square reported.

None have a legal basis to enter the U.S. before being paroled through the CHNV program, DHS documents the committee obtained state.

“All individuals paroled into the United States are, by definition, inadmissible, including those paroled under the CHNV Processes,” one of the DHS documents states.

Additionally, CHNV parolees are being arrested nationwide for committing brutal, violent crimes against Americans, The Center Square reported.

Suspending the CHNV flights, U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said, “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. 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.

“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,” he said, adding that the CHNV program should be immediately terminated.

With Texas leading the charge to stop the CHNV program, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said, “Biden/Harris want you to think he secured the border. They just bypassed it by flying illegal immigrants OVER the border. They say they are curbing illegal immigration when in reality they are an accomplice to it.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also said, “After shipping hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals across America, the Biden-Harris Administration now admits that the program is rife with fraud. The CHNV program has been a DISASTER for this country in addition to being blatantly ILLEGAL. That’s why I sued Biden last year to stop the program and look forward to arguing the case before the 5th Circuit. We must close the border, end the loopholes, and finally put America first.”

Mayorkas changed or created many new parole policies after some countries refused to accept their citizens being deported back from the U.S., The Center Square reported. Instead of detaining and removing them, he directed federal agents to release them into the U.S.