The government under President Biden has temporarily halted a policy set up to deter unauthorized entries along the United States–Mexico border, according to an announcement on Friday. This comes due to fears of potential fraudulent activities linked with sponsors involved in the policy. As per this regulation, up to 30,000 people from crisis-ridden nations such as Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela were allowed to fly legally to the U.S. each month. This was conditionally permitted if they were to receive financial backing from American sponsors.
The initiation of this program took place in the end months of 2022, with an expansion planned in the early part of 2023. The primary goal was to discourage migrants from the aforementioned nations from approaching the southern border of the U.S. Following apprehensions about fraudulent actions, the Department of Homeland Security temporarily ceased the issuance of travelling documents to applicants aspiring to join the policy.
It was first highlighted by Fox News that this policy had been temporarily put on hold by the Department of Homeland Security. First, the travel approval for Venezuelans under the plan, termed CHNV, was suspended in July. Eventually, this suspension was expanded to include the remaining three nationalities. This development was shared by two individuals familiar with the matter.
The reason behind the temporary suspension of the policy was primarily due to alarms raised by the fraud detection arm of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It was observed that a sizeable portion of potential sponsors were attempting to support multiple migrants simultaneously. The ongoing investigation pertains to potential fraudulent activities of the U.S. sponsors applying for the program rather than the migrants themselves, as informed by the sources.
For individuals to qualify as potential sponsors, they are required to be U.S. citizens, residents, or possess a legal status within the country. Enhancing its statement, the Department of Homeland Security mentioned that it would recommend cases of immigration fraud to the Department of Justice. This could potentially lead to criminal prosecutions.
Furthermore, the Department of Homeland Security reassured that there have been no ‘identified issues’ pertaining to the vetting of migrants eligible under this sponsorship program. Mark Greene, a representative from Tennessee and the Republican chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, stated that the temporary cessation of the program confirmed his initial reservations regarding the program.
Greene, in his statement, expressed that such issues are a result of establishing an illegal mass-parole program, primarily designed to steer the administration away from the political backlash as well as the negative public perception of overcrowded borders. Greene also urged the Biden-Harris administration to permanently end the CHNV program without delay.
According to government statistics, since the beginning, the CHNV initiative has facilitated the travel of approximately 520,000 individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to U.S. airports. This was accomplished only after thorough rounds of security vetting. After implementation of specific policies for these nationalities by the Biden administration, the arrivals of migrants from these countries at the U.S. southern border have declined significantly from their previous peaks.
The CHNV program has been coupled with a policy that mandates the return of migrants from these selected countries to Mexico if they are found to be entering the U.S. illegally. This initiative has met with legal challenges in federal court from states led by Republicans. Their contention is primarily that the program is violating the objectives of the humanitarian parole law cited by the Biden administration to admit migrants through this program.
Earlier this year, a lawsuit led by Republican states, alleging the program to be unlawful, was dismissed by a federal judge in Texas. The judge based this on a ruling that the states failed to demonstrate that they had suffered due to the operation of the policy. However, an appeal against this decision has been lodged by the aggrieved states.
The number of migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border rose to hit a record high in 2022 and 2023. However, this year witnessed a dramatic decline in such crossings, with numbers reaching the lowest since 2015, as recorded in July. Officials have ascribed this drastic fall to several factors.
The major reason contributing to this lower percentage includes stringent asylum policies enforced by President Biden. Additional factors are the excessive heat during the summer months and the preventive measures taken by Mexico to halt migrants from using its territory as a transit route.