The Biden administration froze the program that allows tens of thousands of migrants from four nations to fly or travel directly to the U.S., after a report circulated internally showing significant amounts of fraud in the program.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to Fox News Digital that, “out of an abundance of caution,” it has temporarily paused the issuance of advance travel authorizations for the program, which allows up to 30,000 Citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) to travel to the U.S. each month and enter legally under the administration’s parole if they meet certain conditions.
A congressional source told Fox News Digital that the pause came in mid-July after an internal report uncovered large amounts of fraud in applications by those sponsoring applicants.
DHS said the pause was occurring while it reviewed applications from sponsors. The focus is on problems with applications for support and not on submissions from program recipients themselves.
“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 said. “When 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.”
The US froze the flight programlos
“Out of an abundance of caution, DHS has temporarily paused issuing advance travel authorizations for new beneficiaries while it conducts a review of supporter requests. DHS will resume processing requests as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards in place,” they said.
The program was initially announced for Venezuelans in October 2022 and allowed a limited number to fly or travel directly to the U.S. as long as they had not entered illegally, had a sponsor in the U.S., and passed certain biometric and biographical screening. The program itself does not facilitate flights, and migrants are responsible for their own travel.
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In January 2023, the administration announced that the program was expanding to include Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Cubans and that the program would allow up to 30,000 people per month into the U.S. It allows migrants to receive work permits and two-year authorization to live in the United States, and was announced alongside an expansion of Title 42 expulsions to include those nationalities.
Without issuing authorization
A source from Congress he told Fox News Digital that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stopped issuing travel authorizations to Venezuelans on July 6 and authorizations for the three remaining nationalities on July 18.
The internal report found that applications for the program included Social Security numbers, addresses and phone numbers that were used hundreds of times in some cases.
Parts of the report shared with Fox News Digital by Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a conservative immigration group, showed that 100,948 forms were completed by 3,218 serial sponsors, those whose number appears on 20 or more forms.
More information in Fox News Digital
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2024-08-03 08:23:56
