Republican offensive against CHNV parole: Fraud, human trafficking and other violations

Donald Trump and his Republican allies promised to go all out against Democratic immigration programs like CHNV parole, and they have already set the wheels in motion. The Trump administration is not yet in the White House but has already published a report in which it not only calls the program “unlawful,” but also “a fraud-ridden, unmitigated disaster,” guilty of undermining “national security” and endangering “public safety” over and above the “best interests of Americans.” There is little doubt that the end of the parole program is just around the corner.

The 14-page report from the Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement released Wednesday lays out documented “revelations of massive fraud” in the Biden-Harris administration program, which has allowed more than 531,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan citizens to legally enter the United States.

“Through CHNV, each month up to 30,000 aliens, who otherwise have no basis to enter the country and who have ‘a supporter’ in the United States, can bypass the U.S. border and fly directly into the country ‘on commercial flights’ to be ‘granted parole’ for a period of two years,” says the document, which was disseminated on social media by the House Judiciary GOP.

After exposing the Democratic “Administration’s abuses of immigration law” and its failure to stop a crisis that has “negatively” affected communities across the country, the Republicans called on Congress to stop a program they say was implemented “without their authorization.” “It is clear that Congress must act to address the massive influx of illegal immigrants during the Biden-Harris Administration and rein in the Administration’s dangerously radical open-border policies,” the document states.

“Evidence of fraud” in a program targeted by the Republicans

In early August, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the temporary suspension of the parole program after authorities detected evidence of fraud, particularly in the forms filled in by sponsors — the persons in charge of legally and financially supporting beneficiaries in the United States. Now, the fraud accusations include not only those already reported, but also violations related to the apparent use of public money and human trafficking.

The report details that the same Social Security number was used more than 3,200 times; that over 460 nonexistent zip codes were identified in applications for more than 2,800 beneficiaries; and that, in one case, 21 applications were submitted from the same IP address on behalf of 18 women and only three men. Of those women, at least six were aged under 18.

The Republicans also insist that USCIS has approved parole recipients even though the sponsor submitted fraudulent documents, or admitted that part of their income is derived from criminal activities, or they are people who depend on public assistance. The document also claims that DHS approved people who were on parole, were beneficiaries of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), or had temporary visas in the country.

Renowned Florida immigration attorney Willy Allen does not doubt that such programs could be ripe for fraud. “I’m not surprised, any program like this, which allowed sponsorship of anyone, is always open to fraud.” However, he believes that if the number of fraud cases is just over 100,000, as authorities have said, it is still a minimal figure for the more than two and a half million people who applied for the parole program and the small number of beneficiaries. “The program wasn’t perfect, but it did allow legal entry to hundreds of thousands of people for a period of time.”

The Republicans claim in the new report that despite “this documented evidence of fraud” for which the program was previously suspended, the Biden-Harris administration went ahead and announced its resumption in late August 2024.

“The parole program is already dead”

Trump has not been shy about saying that, once he takes the reins of the country, he will abandon programs such as CBP One, through which migrants schedule their appointments at the border, or the parole program. “Get ready to leave, especially quickly if they’re criminals. Get ready to leave because you’re going to be going out real fast,” he said in an interview on Fox News in September. His vice president-elect, J. D. Vance, also agreed with those words and has said that, although thousands of people have entered through these types of programs, he will continue to call them “illegal aliens.”

The document that the Republicans released is, in fact, an anti-immigration declaration. In its pages, they claim that the Biden-Harris administration implemented programs like these “to mask the border crisis and artificially decrease historically high border encounters.” The report claims that, since January 2021, the country has “welcomed 7.7 million illegal aliens,” a period during which over 100,000 encounters were recorded at the southwest border in 44 consecutive months.

The end of the parole program is only a matter of time. Allen has no doubt that, in fact, humanitarian parole is already finished. “The program is dead and it died in July. In August, no one entered, in September just over a thousand people entered, and the numbers for October are also low. In December, it will not continue. It began as an executive order and it will die as an executive order,” the attorney says.

Many families will be left in complete uncertainty: both those who are waiting for a response from the program, as well as those who have completed two years of legal residence in the United States. “Sadly, the people who have not entered until now will not enter. They will have to find other ways to come to the United States, because this path has already died. It doesn’t matter if you are waiting for a response, if you applied a year ago,” says Allen.

He also explains that, in the case of Cubans who arrived in the country as beneficiaries of the program, they will be able to benefit from the so-called Cuban Adjustment Act, which opens the way for them to gain permanent residence. Venezuelans will remain under the protection of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), at least until they can renew it. However, Nicaraguans and Haitians are in the most vulnerable position. “They will not have a way to continue in the country legally after two years,” insists the lawyer. “What I have recommended to those who are afraid to return to their country is that this is the time to request political asylum in the United States, because they come from countries where they faced violence like the Haitians, or political repression like the Cubans or Venezuelans, and this is the time when they can request asylum.”

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