The Biden-Harris administration recently decided to halt one of its controversial immigration programs after an internal report uncovered rampant fraud, according to a Thursday Fox News Digital report.
The administration’s CHNV program allows 30,000 nationals per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela — as well as their immediate family members — to immigrate to the U.S.
Fox News Digital reported that the Department of Homeland Security paused the program in mid-July after a report created by the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate discovered fraud in many of the applications of beneficiaries’ sponsors — those already residing in the U.S.
To be eligible for the program, applicants must have a U.S.-based sponsor and pass the DHS vetting process. Additionally, they could not have attempted to enter the country illegally previously. If approved, the beneficiaries are flown into the country with a two-year authorization to reside in the U.S. and provided work-permit eligibility.
The DHS told the news outlet that it halted the program “out of an abundance of caution” while it reviews those applications.
“DHS has review mechanisms in place to detect and prevent fraud and abuse in our immigration processes. DHS takes any abuse of its processes very seriously,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Where fraud is identified, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will investigate and litigate applicable cases in immigration court and make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.”
“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,” the spokesperson added.
The internal report uncovered sponsor applications that used the same social security numbers, address, and phone numbers hundreds of times, Fox News Digital reported. The report, obtained by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, showed that 100,948 forms had been filed by 3,218 serial sponsors, defined as those who appeared on at least 20 forms.
In some instances, sponsors used phone numbers belonging to dead people, addresses of storage units, and nonexistent zip codes, the report found.
Despite the alarming findings, the DHS maintained that applicants are “thoroughly screened and vetted prior to their arrival to the United States.”
“The multi-layered screening and vetting for advanced travel authorizations is separate from the screening of U.S.-based supporters,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “DHS has not identified issues of concern relating to the screening and vetting of beneficiaries.”
Ira Mehlman, a spokesperson for FAIR, told the news outlet, “This is an indication that the administration was willing to cut every corner and endanger public safety in order to bring in as many illegal aliens as they could.”
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) released a statement responding to the DHS’ recent decision to pause the program.
“This admission by the Biden-Harris administration vindicates every warning we have ever issued about the unlawful CHNV mass-parole program,” Green said. “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.”
Green called for the program to be immediately terminated.
“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,” Green added.
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