'Fraud, failure, and illegality': Cruz, other senators demand end to 'flawed' immigration program under Biden-Harris

A group of senators, led by Ted Cruz (R-Texas), sent a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding the administration put an end to its "fundamentally-flawed" CHNV program.

The program, which was recently restarted despite discoveries of fraud, allows 30,000 individuals per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to immigrate to the United States. Those beneficiaries are flown into the U.S. and provided with a two-year work permit.

'Stop-gap marginal improvements and platitudes to improve the program do not solve the fundamental fraud, failure, and illegality of the CHNV program.'

In a letter obtained by the Daily Wire, Senator Cruz and his fellow lawmakers urged the federal government to "immediately" terminate the "ineffective, unlawful, and hazardous" program.

The DHS temporarily paused CHNV in mid-July "out of an abundance of caution" after a Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate report found fraud among some of the applications submitted by U.S.-based sponsors of the foreign national beneficiaries. The report revealed that approximately 3,000 sponsors had filed more than 100,000 forms. It also discovered that some of the sponsors used phone numbers belonging to deceased individuals, addresses of storage units, and fake zip codes.

A DHS spokesperson stated the agency would implement "additional vetting" of sponsors to protect against fraud moving forward. However, the program was restarted fewer than six weeks after the report was released.

In the letter, Cruz stated, "Stop-gap marginal improvements and platitudes to improve the program do 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."

According to the senators, the program is unlawful and has "pervasive failure in oversight."

"By establishing a categorical program based on nationality, the Biden administration created a parallel immigration system without congressional approval," the senators stated.

"There have been many instances of crimes, such as sexual assault, rape, and murder committed by CHNV participants," they noted. "Scammers have been charging up to $5,000 for sponsorship, which underscores the program's vulnerability to exploitation by traffickers and other malicious actors."

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