The Trump Administration is expected to scrap a Biden-Harris program to fly virtually unvetted immigrants into the United States. The controversial plan was short-circuited last July after the media spotlighted reports of flagrant fraud, but flights resumed almost unnoticed in August of 2024.
The hastily cobbled program airlifted migrants from third-world countries Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela into the U.S. Taxpayers footed the bill for the Department of Homeland Security to hire private jets to disperse the ragtag band of migrants to airports in 43 cities, avoiding public scrutiny.
The sham program, known as CHNV, was inaugurated in 2022 by the administration after the number of illegal immigrants from those four countries were flooding the southern border in waves. The program's carrot was two-year periods of paroles to migrants from those four countries.
Border Patrol agents intercepted more than 17,500 illegal entrants from those four countries in 2020. By 2021, the apprehensions skyrocketed ten fold to 181,000. A year later, the numbers ballooned to 600,000 illegal entrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Instead of tightening border security, the administration green-lighted an ill-conceived program to stem the tide by using private aircraft to fly the immigrants directly to the U.S. The White House initiated the program without Congressional approval in October 2022.
The scheme's architect, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, launched the spurious plan by airlifting Venezuelans into the country. It drew little scrutiny from the media, so the administration doubled down in January, 2023, expanding the scheme to include Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua immigrants.
In an election year, the Biden-Harris Administration hoped the program would cause illegal crossings to tumble at the border, allowing them to spoon feed stories to the corporate media about the their successful efforts to deal with the immigration issue. This was about election optics not policy.
The program quota was to shuttle in 30,000 immigrants from the each of the four countries monthly for a total of 300,000 annually. The administration has admitted to resettling 541,000 immigrants, but CBS News estimated that the number of parolees is closer to 1.4 million since its inception in 2022.
The Homeland Security's $3 billion program allowed illegal immigrants to land in America under a temporary two-year parole with no plan to force the aliens to leave once their stays expired. In fact, DHS could not reliably track the whereabouts once the immigrants arrived.
Despite the administration's effort to reduce crossings, the Border Patrol apprehended more than 179,000 CHNV illegal immigrants at the southern border in just the first nine months of fiscal year 2024. The smoke-and-mirrors, election-year strategy was a spectacular failure.
Yet the administration plowed ahead, with its Swiss cheese process for admitting these immigrants. Under the patchwork system, so-called supporters in the U.S. agreed to give financial assistance to a CHNV national. Then the immigrants used a U.S. government app to upload photos and a biography.
The four countries could not be counted on to vet the immigrants. Therefore, Homeland Security relied on its employees to attempt to verify the information. To call it a farce, would be too charitable.
This flawed process allowed CHNV immigrants residing in other countries to apply. As a result, immigrants from 77 countries, including Fiji, Italy, Sweden and Iceland returned to their homeland and then boarded flights to the U.S. Those immigrants were unlikely to ever cross the southern border.
Customs and Border Protection fingerprinted the immigrants once they were flown into the U.S. and granted the foreigners a two-year parole. Once stateside, the immigrants had the right to work in America, receive food stamps, Medicaid and welfare benefits.
Inevitably, the program was exploited by immigrants from the CHNV countries. For instance 100.948 forms were completed by 3,218 sponsors in the U.S. Most of the "sponsors" were immigrants who had been beneficiaries of the misnamed "humanitarian" airlift program.
Investigations uncovered immigrant sponsors listed the same addresses on more than 19,000 forms, allowing the incoming foreigners to skirt the requirement for an American sponsor. Media reports documented that scammers were charging $5,000 to new CHNV arrivals.
Rampant fraud unearthed by the Fraud Detection & National Security Directorate (FDNSD) forced the government to eventually post on its webpage: "Beware of any scams or potential exploitation by anyone who asks for money associated with participation in this process."
Venezuelan strongman Nicholas Madura took advantage of the government largess to empty prisons in his country to rid the penal system of notorious Tren de Aragua gang members who ruled the facilities. A DHS memo obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request reported the violent gang is now operating in 16 states.
Police reports document that gang members have been charged in robberies, murders, shootings of police officers, gun smuggling and other crimes. Immigrant advocate groups and Biden apologists have maintained the reports of Tren de Aragua gang activity are overblown.
Initially, they claimed news reporting was exaggerated about gang members raiding an Aurora, Colorado, apartment complex. Weeks later the Aurora police chief announced that 16 gang members were in custody following a home invasion and kidnapping in the city.
San Antonio Police recently arrested 19 members of Tren de Aragua who had taken over a vacant apartment complex. CBS News reported the gang is so pervasive in New York City that its members are openly recruiting adolescents to join their criminal organization.
President Trump should end this dishonest experiment by ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to round up gang members for immediate deportation. The second priority should be locate all CHNV parolees to immediately adjudicate their status as asylum seekers.
The incoming administration also should pursue criminal action against DHS Secretary Mayorkas, who presided over the importation of millions of unvetted illegal immigrants. During his tenure, he repeatedly falsely claimed the CHNV vetting process was safe and secure.
Holding federal government officials legally accountable would be a novel concept in official Washington. However, this is an egregious case of negligence, using taxpayer funds to usher in criminals from foreign countries who threaten the safety of American citizens.
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