A program designed to provide humanitarian relief for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV) fleeing their home countries has been admitting many of the migrants from safe, prosperous third countries instead. According to House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, documents show that many of the inadmissible migrants under the CHNV program were admitted from Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Hong Kong, Lt. Lucia, Sweden, and other wealthy nations.
In response to the release of these documents, Chairman Green commented: “By operating this obviously unlawful mass-parole program, Biden and Mayorkas continue to make a mockery of our laws.” The existence of the CHNV program is in clear violation of the limits on parole established in the immigration laws passed by bipartisan congressional majorities. Furthermore, it seems that many of those who have left the CHNV countries seeking economic opportunity or a better life have found it in prosperous nations through Europe, Asia, and elsewhere.
The documents were obtained through successful Freedom of Information Act litigation brought by the Centers for Immigration Studies (CIS. According to CIS, the negotiated release of the documents did not include specific numbers of migrants departing the more than 70 departure countries from which the over 460 thousand Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants arrived. The information was held back by the Biden administration for more than a year after the initial FOIA request.
Colin Farnsworth, the Center’s chief FOIA counsel, explained that although the government had no legitimate claims for withholding the foreign airports the participants of the ATA program were flying from, and their respective departure volumes, CIS determined it was in the public’s interest to quickly obtain the list of related foreign countries by settling the lawsuit, instead of allowing the government to extensively delay the release of any records through a lengthy legal process.
Chairman Green expressed his concerns that an extensive list of countries from which the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelan migrants had resettled would provide ample evidence that the program falls outside legitimate grounds for asylum. He said, “This demonstrates that many who are making use of the Biden administration’s mass-parole program have settled comfortably in other nations and likely have no legitimate grounds for claiming protections within the United States.
The latest document release adds to the concerns the House Homeland Security Committee raised with the program in recent months. In April, the Committee released internal DHS documents identifying more than 50 airports in the United States, including the nation’s capital, where CHNV program migrants were allowed to enter the country. According to the documents obtained through a committee subpoena, 1.6 million nationals of the four countries, which DHS admits are inadmissible under current immigration law, are awaiting travel authorization to enter the U.S. under the CHNV program.
The top ten arrival airport locations and the number of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants granted parole between January and August 2023 were: Miami, Florida — 91,821; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida — 60,461; New York City, New York — 14,827; Houston, Texas — 7,923; Orlando, Florida — 6,043; Los Angeles, California — 3,271; Tampa, Florida — 3,237; Dallas, Texas — 2,256; San Francisco, California — 2,052; Atlanta, Georgia — 1,796.