Biden-Harris Parole Program Halted as FAIR Exposes Massive Fraud
The Biden-Harris parole program that allows as many as 360,000 illegal aliens a year from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) to enter the United States is not only illegal, but is fraud-ridden. The fraud is so massive that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quietly paused the program in the hope they could get it fixed before the American public learned about the extent of the problems.
Thanks to the work of FAIR, however, the American public learned the truth. Through our network of sources, FAIR was able to obtain an exclusive copy of an internal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) report, classified as “law enforcement sensitive,” which was filled with evidence of pervasive fraud in the CHNV parole program. FAIR analyzed and provided highlights of the USCIS report to a leading news media outlet, which exposed the dangerous fraud and coverup to the American public.
The story first appeared as the lead story on FoxNews.com’s website on Friday August 2. After the story broke on the Fox News site in an exclusive story by Adam Shaw, it was reported in more than 600 national, local and international news outlets by the end of the weekend. These included the Associated Press, Thomson-Reuters, the Washington Post, the New York Post, Newsweek and others. Additionally, FAIR’s president Dan Stein appeared the following week on the Fox News Channel to discuss the findings of the report, while other FAIR staffers appeared on numerous talk radio programs around the country.
The story of fraud in the CHNV parole program also went viral on social media, where it could be seen by millions of people who follow FAIR on Facebook, X, Instagram and other social media platforms. A retweet by Bill Melugin, who covers the border for Fox TV News, resulted in more than 30,000 replies and 12,000 retweets in the first 48 hours after the story broke.
FAIR’s story also had ripple effects on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Mike Johnson immediately responded on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Shut it down permanently.” He added, “This program should have never existed in the first place. It’s just another way the Biden-Harris Administration has welcomed hundreds of thousands of aliens into our country, unchecked.”
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a press statement, “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. The Biden-Harris administration should terminate the CHNV program immediately.”
The report that FAIR exposed details the alarming results of an internal review USCIS performed of thousands of sponsor applications for the CHNV parole program “to identify patterns, trends, and potential fraud indicators.” The new and never disclosed internal report suggests massive fraud in the application process, and specifically, fraudulent information used in thousands of Forms I-134A, the paperwork a sponsor files with USCIS for each alien seeking parole through the CHNV program.
Here’s what FAIR exposed:
- Applicants (sponsors) and parolees used fake Social Security Numbers (SSNs), including SSNs of deceased individuals.
- Applicants often did not provide their income (even though the sponsor is financially required to support the alien). Sponsors who did provide their income “often [did] not meet the financial threshold to support the number of parolees they intend to sponsor.”
- Applicants (sponsors) used fake phone numbers. One sponsor’s phone number was reported on over 2,000 forms submitted by 200 different sponsors.
- Many applications listed the same physical address. In fact, 100 addresses were listed on over 19,000 forms, and many parole applicants applied from a single property (including a mobile park home, warehouse, and storage unit).
- The same exact answers to Form I-134A questions were provided on hundreds of applications – in some instances, the same answer was used by over 10,000 applicants.
- Many applications were submitted by the same computer IP address, and many applicants used fictitious zip codes and visa stamp A-numbers (which are generated by USCIS).
In response to the exposure of fraud, DHS stated that it is working to correct the problems and restart the program. However, as FAIR has also reported, that even without fraud, the Biden-Harris administration has no statutory authority to run the CHNV or other immigration parole programs it has created. The law clearly states that parole may only be exercised on a case-by-case basis in very specific instances where national or humanitarian interests are served. Nevertheless, as FAIR reported in March, these illegal parole programs are now allowing more people to enter the country each year than legal immigrants who are granted green cards.
In late August, DHS quietly restarted the CHNV program, offering only vague assurances that they have fixed the problems they tried to hide in the first place. FAIR will continue its work to expose the Biden- Harris administration’s abuse of parole authority, while, as Speaker Johnson demanded, working to shut these unlawful programs down permanently.