Blaze News original: Biden-Harris immigration policy shell game — more 'lawful pathways' and less enforcement

One of the first orders of business for President Joe Biden (D) when he took office was to immediately undo former President Donald Trump's immigration policies, which included halting construction of the border wall. In fact, within his first year, Biden took nearly 300 immigration-related executive actions that have ultimately led to the nation's current unprecedented immigration crisis.

Perhaps even more damaging than leaving the nation's doors open to illegal immigration, Biden, along with his vice president and now the Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, spent the past three and a half years using the administration's executive powers to circumvent Congress and rapidly expand "lawful pathways," including parole programs, Temporary Protected Status, and the CBP One app.

The Biden-Harris administration has rolled out these executive actions under the guise of curbing illegal crossings by incentivizing foreign nationals to pursue so-called legal routes instead. However, while their measures may have slightly reduced southern border encounter numbers in recent months, they have ramped up questionably legal immigration nationwide.

As far as the current administration is concerned, these expanded immigration pathways have granted millions of foreign nationals legal status in the U.S.

However, with election season in full swing and immigration a top concern for a vast number of voters, the Biden-Harris turned Harris-Walz campaign is attempting to appear more moderate on immigration issues and distancing itself from its self-inflicted crisis by, among other things, touting its lowered border encounter stats while glossing over how its expanded pathways have allowed millions of lightly vetted foreign nationals to enter the country.

Background on pathway expansion

Until May 2023, Title 42 allowed the federal government to quickly expel illegal immigrants who had recently been in a country where COVID-19 was present. With the expulsion program set to end, the administration anticipated a significant spike in border crossings. As a way to mitigate that increase and "discourage irregular migration," the Biden-Harris administration's Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice issued "a final rule to incentivize the use of lawful pathways."

The administration sold its expanded pathways firstly as a "lawful" process that encouraged "safe" and "orderly" immigration into the U.S.

With the number of illegal border crossings over the first three years of Biden's presidency exceeding nine million, the expanded pathway measures provided ways for the administration to continue allowing foreign nationals to enter the country in large numbers while potentially reducing eye-popping encounter stats at the southwest border.

'CHNV program, which allows inadmissible Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to fly in.'

In the summer of 2023, the Biden-Harris administration listed the ways it planned to increase so-called legal migration, including by "establishing country-specific and other available processes to seek parole for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit; expanding opportunities to enter for seasonal employment; putting in place a mechanism for migrants to schedule a time and place to arrive in a safe, orderly, and lawful manner at ports of entry via use of the CBP One mobile app; and expanding refugee processing in the Western Hemisphere."

Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, told Blaze News, "The most consequential, and unlawful, 'lawful pathway' used by the Biden administration has been the use of parole to allow about 5 million inadmissible migrants into the country who would not otherwise qualify either for asylum or a legal visa."

She noted that the administration's pathways have "taken several forms," including "catch-and-release at the border, the CBP One app to enable unqualified people from anywhere in the world to make an appointment to cross the border, and the CHNV program, which allows inadmissible Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to fly in and settle where ever they like, and in the case of the Cubans and Haitians, immediately apply for welfare programs and enroll their kids in public schools at taxpayer expense."

CBP One mobile app

The Biden-Harris administration has significantly expanded Customs and Border Protection's CBP One application, which allows foreign nationals located in certain parts of Mexico to schedule an appointment at a port of entry to make an asylum claim. The catch-and-release policies under the current administration mean that applicants undergo a quick and abbreviated vetting process before they are released into the interior of the U.S. and provided with years-out court dates to later review the legitimacy of their asylum claims.

Under the Biden-Harris leadership, the mobile app has expanded eligibility territory, allowing foreign nationals to apply from Northern, Central, and some parts of Southern Mexico, thereby incentivizing individuals worldwide to travel to Mexico to schedule an appointment. CBP schedules 1,450 appointments per day.

A recent report from the DHS' Office of Inspector General revealed that the application lacks some capabilities to assist with vetting foreign nationals.

The application's limited vetting ability, coupled with overwhelmed federal immigration agents at the border forced to expedite the release of those requesting asylum, has allowed gang members and criminals to enter the country.

In just one recent example, two young men suspected to be members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were recently busted in Aurora, Colorado, for alleged ties to a shooting. According to reports, the men used the CBP One app to enter the U.S. in August.

The CHNV pathway

The administration's CHNV program allows 30,000 individuals per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to immigrate to the U.S. and receive a two-year work permit. It is worth noting that CHNV beneficiaries are being flown into the U.S. not necessarily from their country of origin. In fact, the CIS discovered that individuals have been flown from 77 countries into 45 international U.S. airports.

In recent weeks, the program has stirred up a firestorm of controversy after a report by the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate uncovered fraud among sponsors' applications. Foreign national beneficiaries must have a U.S.-based sponsor, also called a supporter — individual or entity — to be eligible for the program.

'The president and his border czar play a massive shell game.'

Those currently in the country on Temporary Protected Status or asylum can serve as supporters to CHNV beneficiaries, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services' website. In other words, beneficiaries do not require an American citizen sponsor to enter the country through this program, leaving it vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

The report found that some supporters had used the same Social Security numbers, addresses, and phone numbers hundreds of times. Additionally, approximately 3,000 sponsors had filed more than 100,000 forms. Some of those forms included phone numbers belonging to deceased individuals, addresses of storage units, and fake zip codes.

While news of the discovered fraud did not break until early August, the DHS reportedly paused the CHNV program in mid-July while investigating the findings.

Roughly a month and a half later, the Biden-Harris administration announced that it was rebooting the program, with the DHS claiming that it would conduct "additional vetting" of sponsors moving forward.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) urged the federal government to end the "clearly flawed" and "unlawful" program.

"The CHNV program, along with the use of the CBP One app at the Southwest border, has helped the president and his border czar play a massive shell game, encouraging otherwise inadmissible aliens to simply cross at ports of entry instead of between them," he stated following the administration's announcement.

A group of senators led by Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recently penned a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also calling for the program's termination.

Cruz accused the DHS of continuing the program after implementing "stop-gap marginal improvements" that would not "solve the fundamental fraud, failure, and illegality of the CHNV program."

"This fundamentally flawed program must be permanently dismantled. The program has not only facilitated widespread fraud, but has also exposed serious vulnerabilities in our immigration system, leading to dire consequences for public safety. The tragic sexual assault and murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray by two Venezuelan illegal aliens indicates the dangers posed by the Biden-Harris administration's immigration policies," Cruz wrote in the letter.

The senators linked the CHNV program and the administration's expansion of TPS for Venezuelans to the "troubling rise in crime" and the increased presence of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang now operating in some areas of the U.S.

Furthermore, they accused the Biden-Harris administration of "creat[ing] a parallel immigration system without congressional approval."

'Keeping Families Together' program

In addition to implementing more pathways for foreign nationals to enter the U.S., the Biden-Harris administration has also promoted mass amnesty processes for those already in the country seeking permanent legal status.

The DHS announced the "Keeping Families Together" program in mid-August, calling it "a step toward ... Biden's commitment to promoting family unity in the immigration system."

If permitted to move forward, it would allow some illegal immigrants to "request parole in place under existing statutory authority." Those eligible for the program include spouses and stepchildren of American citizens. Spousal applicants must have lived in the U.S. since June 2014 and have been married to a citizen since June 2024. Stepchildren applicants must be under 21 years old and unmarried, have resided in the country since June 2024, and have an illegal alien parent married to a citizen.

'The Biden-Harris-Mayorkas schemes were deliberately created to circumvent the immigration laws.'

As part of the program, eligible individuals would be granted parole in place, allowing them to remain in the country while they request an adjustment of status.

USCIS' website states, "If granted parole, and if otherwise eligible, these noncitizens may apply for adjustment of status to that of a lawful permanent resident without being required to leave the United States and be processed by a U.S. consulate overseas."

"DHS estimates that 500,000 noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens could be eligible to access Keeping Families Together; on average, these noncitizens have resided in the United States for 23 years," it continues. "In addition, approximately 50,000 noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens are estimated to be eligible to seek parole under Keeping Families Together."

Critics have called it a mass amnesty program.

Shortly after it was announced, 16 Republican-led states filed a lawsuit against the Biden-Harris administration to prevent the program from moving forward. The complaint claimed that the administration's estimate that it would extend legal status to up to 550,000 illegal aliens is "likely a significant underestimate," arguing that the number could be as high as 1.3 million.

The lawsuit, filed in partnership with America First Legal, read, "DHS has announced the creation of a program that effectively provides a new pathway to a green card and eventual citizenship ... to circumvent the process established by Congress to apply for permanent residency."

It stated, "This action incentivizes illegal immigration and will irreparably harm the Plaintiff States," which included Texas, Idaho, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming.

In response to the suit, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted a stay order, preventing the federal government from implementing the program at least until September 23 while the case is pending.

USCIS noted that it is still accepting applications for its "Keeping Families Together" program, including scheduling biometric appointments for applicants, but it is not currently granting any parole-in-place requests due to the ongoing lawsuit.

Final thoughts

The most troubling aspect of the Biden-Harris administration's open-borders policies has been the limited vetting processes that have allowed criminals from all over the world to slip into the country.

"Besides the huge expense to taxpayers, there is a human cost as well, as some of these individuals are violent gang members, deviants, and human traffickers, and they have caused incalculable harm in a number of communities around the country, from New York City to Aurora, Colorado, to Springfield, Ohio, to Nashville, Tennessee," Vaughan told Blaze News.

Despite the federal government's claims that every foreign national granted asylum or other form of parole has been thoroughly vetted, law enforcement officials' ability to access an individual's criminal background is extremely limited.

Immigration officials tasked with performing background checks on foreign nationals making asylum claims at the border are limited to U.S.-based background checks and Interpol.

Vaughan explained, "There is no meaningful vetting process. The only vetting that the immigration officers can do is to check if the migrant has a record here in the United States, and most of them have never been here before. We have next to no information on their background."

Vaughan confirmed to Blaze News that potential lawsuits against the administration's expanded pathways could have legal standing.

"The Biden-Harris-Mayorkas schemes were deliberately created to circumvent the immigration laws as Congress wrote them, and especially the numerical limits," she said. "The law explicitly prohibits using parole to allow defined categories of migrants to enter without a visa or after crossing illegally; it is permissible only on a case-by-case individual basis and only if it can be justified as a significant public benefit."

The administration's expanded pathways and asylum programs refer to 8 U.S.C. § 1182(d)(5), which states that the attorney general may "parole" a foreign national into the country "temporarily" but "only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit." However, it notes, "Such parole of such alien shall not be regarded as an admission of the alien and when the purposes of such parole shall, in the opinion of the Attorney General, have been served the alien shall forthwith return or be returned to the custody from which he was paroled and thereafter his case shall continue to be dealt with in the same manner as that of any other applicant for admission to the United States."

Vaughan noted, "A lot of people are asking what possible public benefit has come from these policies, especially the families of people harmed by illegal migrants, or taxpayers seeing their hard-earned money spent on hotel rooms, Uber rides, pizza dinners, health care, schooling, and sometimes prosecution and incarceration of people who have no interest and no prospect of contributing to their community."

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