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WASHINGTON —A Biden administration program aimed at reducing chaotic migrant arrivals at the U.S. southern border is being turned into a political issue by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and others who are casting it as a secretive bid to bring hundreds of thousands of migrants into the United States.
The White House announced the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV) parole program on January 5, 2023. Individuals in those four countries are allowed to apply for legal entry to the United States from abroad under the humanitarian parole authority of U.S. immigration law.
White House officials said the initiative is part of the administration's efforts to discourage unlawful entries along the U.S. southern border. Applicants legally enter the country once they prove they have financial sponsors in the U.S. and pass background checks. The humanitarian parole authority allows the approved applicants to live and work legally in the U.S. temporarily.
The program is modeled on the Ukraine program and an earlier Venezuelan program.
CIS report
Trump's claim was based on a report by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that advocates restricting immigration to the U.S.
According to CIS, the administration has not made public the U.S. airports where 320,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have arrived since the program began.
The report showed migrants arrived in 43 U.S. airports, but the administration declined to list them, citing sensitive operational information, an exemption under the Freedom of Information Act.
"Today it was announced that 325,000 people were flown in from parts unknown - migrants were flown in airplane, not going through borders. ... It was unbelievable," Trump said during a speech on Tuesday. "I said that must be a mistake. They flew 325,000 migrants. Flew them in over the borders and into our country."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a policy director at the American Immigration Council, told VOA that the U.S. government is not paying migrants to fly to the United States and that the program requires people to receive travel authorization, purchase their own airfare and come on a commercial flight.
"Every person approved for parole is vetted by the U.S. government prior to being granted the status. The idea that people arriving through this government program are 'unvetted' or 'illegal immigrants' is flagrantly wrong," Reichlin-Melnick said.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson also told VOA those with approved applications and travel permission must buy a plane ticket to fly into the United States on a commercial airline - and they are screened and inspected when they arrive at a port of entry.
The program limits total admissions to 30,000 each month.
Congressional authority
President Joe Biden authorized the program with his power of parole, granted by Congress in 1952. It allows the executive to admit individuals "on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit."
During a speech on January 5, 2023, Biden said an applicant must have a lawful sponsor in the United States.
Then the applicant has to "undergo rigorous background checks and apply from outside the United States and not cross the border illegally in the meantime," Biden said. "If they apply and their application is approved, they can use the same app, the CBP One app, to present at a port of entry and be able to work in the United States legally for two years. That's the process."
The CBP One app "is just really an organized way to show [up] at a port of entry," Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney and former U.S. Department of Justice official, told VOA.
Legal status
The program does not lead to U.S. citizenship or permanent residence.
However, Fresco said, people may be able to adjust their immigration status from temporary parole to a more permanent one, such as a visa or sponsorship through a U.S. relative, which can lead to a green card.
Cubans, after a year in the U.S., can apply for permanent residence under the Cuban Adjustment Act.
"Which says if you [a Cuban] are admitted or paroled legally into [the U.S.], after a year, you're going to apply for a green card," Fresco said. "The Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans have to apply for asylum or marry a U.S. citizen or find some other solution."
Those under the parole program can obtain work permits for the two-year duration of their status. They are not undocumented immigrants; they have legal immigration status, Fresco said.
Monthly numbers
U.S. Customs and Border Protection releases monthly CHNV program data. Through the end of February, more than 386,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans arrived lawfully under the program.
"These processes are part of the administration's strategy to combine expanded lawful pathways with stronger consequences to reduce irregular migration, and have kept hundreds of thousands of people from migrating irregularly," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told VOA. "The CHNV parole processes are public; claims of a secret program are false."
David Bier, associate director of immigration policy at the libertarian Cato Institute, wrote in a September briefing that the parole program "has transformed migration to the United States."
"The broad accessibility of these pathways and the quick adjudications directed people to seek sponsors and apply to enter legally rather than go to the U.S.-Mexican border," Bier wrote.
Biden has used the parole authority more than any other president, something Trump strongly criticizes, calling it "an outrageous abuse." He vowed to end it if he returns to the White House.