The Biden-Harris administration has temporarily paused a controversial immigration program that allows tens of thousands of immigrants to be flown into the United States each month after a recent report revealed the program was plagued with widespread fraud.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News that the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) parole program, which allows as many as 30,000 immigrants to be flown into the United States each month, was paused “out of an abundance of caution.”
“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,” a DHS spokesperson said. “DHS will restart application processing as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards.”
Fox News cited a congressional source who told the outlet that the temporary pause of the controversial program was initiated last month after an internal report discovered significant fraud in the immigration program’s sponsor 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 said. “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.”
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According to Fox News, the internal showed that 100,948 sponsor forms were filled out by 3,218 serial sponsors and that the serial sponsors were individuals whose number appeared on at least 20 of the forms. Additionally, the report discovered that 24 of the 1,000 most used numbers were attributed to a dead person.
Fox News reported that 100 physical addresses, including storage units, were used between 124 and 739 times on more than 19,000 forms. The report found that one sponsor’s phone number was used on more than 2,000 forms, while 2,839 forms had non-existent zip codes.
In response to the recent report, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) claimed that the discovery of widespread fraud “vindicates every warning we have ever issued about the unlawful CHNV mass-parole program.”
Meanwhile, former Acting Secretary of DHS Chad Wolf tweeted, “This is not a surprise and was predictable. We’ve been told each parole application was being individually evaluated. That was an outstanding lie and the result is unacceptable.”
