Biden Foolishly Decides Not to Extend Legal Status for Migrants Who Entered the US Under the CHNV Private Sponsorship Program

Immigration

Ilya Somin | 10.5.2024 1:35 PM

Yesterday, the Biden Administration decided not to extend the parole term for participants in the CHNV private sponsorship parole program for migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela:

The Biden administration will not be extending the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants who were allowed to fly to the U.S. under a sponsorship program designed to reduce illegal border crossings, the Department of Homeland Security announced Friday.

Instead, migrants who have come to the U.S. under the policy will be directed to try to obtain legal status through other immigration programs, leave the country or face deportation proceedings.

The administration first launched the sponsorship program in October 2022 to discourage Venezuelans from traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border by offering them a legal way to enter the country if American-based individuals agreed to sponsor them. It was then expanded in January 2023 to include migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua, whose citizens were also crossing the U.S. southern border in record numbers at the time.

As of the end of August, 530,000 migrants from these four countries had flown into the U.S. under the policy, known as the CHNV program, government figures show. They were granted permission to live and work in the U.S. legally for two years under an immigration law known as parole, which presidents can use to welcome foreigners on humanitarian or public interest grounds.

Roughly 214,000  Haitians, 117,000 Venezuelans, 111,000 Cubans and 96,000 Nicaraguans have come to the U.S. so far under the policy, according to government data. The first group set to start losing their parole status this month are Venezuelans, who........

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