(PatriotWise.com) — The Biden administration’s new parole program for migrants from some countries contains a significant flaw, namely, the Department of Homeland Security offices responsible for tracking the parolees once they arrive in the US are unable to do it.
DHS announced a new parole program on January 5, 2023, to allow migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to fly to the United States and be granted parole once they are vetted and approved to purchase airline tickets.
That same month, the administration launched the CBP One mobile app, that acts as a scheduling tool to further incentivize foreign nationals “to use lawful, safe, humane, and orderly pathways” into the US.
Since the app’s launch, more than 630,000 foreign nationals have scheduled appointments through CBP One. In May alone, more than 44,500 migrants were processed.
Most of those processed through the CBP One app are from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Honduras, and Mexico.
A similar, earlier parole program specifically for Afghan citizens was approved by the Biden administration following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
That program, called Operation Allies Welcome, saw about 77,000 Afghan nationals approved for entry into the United States.
However, a May 2024 report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General found that the Operation Allies Welcome program did not include a system to track the parole status of the tens of thousands of Afghans allowed into the country.
According to the Inspector General’s report, the three DHS offices responsible for vetting potential parolees and facilitating their parole (Customs and Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement) were not properly monitoring the expiration of Operation Allies Welcome parolees.
The Inspector General’s Office report highlighted several significant concerns about such parole programs, most notably, whether the government is capable of tracking all of the parolees it has allowed into the United States.
Since President Biden took office, more than 6 million foreign nationals have been encountered at the US-Mexico border, according to data from Customs and Border Protection. Additionally, between FY2022 and FY2023, more than 1.2 million were recorded as “got-aways,” foreign nationals who evaded Border Patrol and entered the country.
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