The program that allowed migrants to apply for asylum from their home countries, known as Humanitarian Parole for Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians) and which was suspended due to possible massive fraud, could be revived by the Joe Biden administration as early as this week, even though thousands of suspicious applications still need to be reviewed, two sources told KeynoteUSA.
The administration announced last month that an 18-month program that had allowed Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to apply for legal entry and temporary work authorization in the U.S. would be “temporarily suspended” while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducted “a review of applications for endorsements” or sponsors.
The government is eager to revive the program as quickly as possible because it is believed to be deterring migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela from crossing the border illegally, said a source familiar with the decision.
An official told KeynoteUSA that when the program resumes, sponsor applications will be manually reviewed in small batches with enhanced vetting procedures. And any sponsor believed to be involved in fraud will be referred for further investigation.
These supporters, also called sponsors, are people who live legally in the United States and who guarantee that they can financially support immigrants who want to come to live in the country.
DETAILS OF THE ALLEGED MASSIVE FRAUD
However, an internal DHS report reviewed by KeynoteUSA found that nearly 101,000 applications to sponsor immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Ukraine were filed by 3,218 so-called serial sponsors. The report, compiled by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, does not indicate how many of those applicants entered the United States.
The report’s authors found thousands of instances of potential sponsors using the same mailing addresses, Internet Protocol addresses or phone numbers. Nearly 600 applications were flagged, for example, because they all appeared to use the address of the same retail warehouse in Orlando, Florida. They also found repeated uses of the same Social Security numbers, including some for deceased people.
In the past, a small number of sponsors for large groups of people have raised concerns about possible human trafficking for immigration programs, though it is not known whether DHS is reviewing those cases for possible human trafficking, the sources said.
The measures include family reunification for Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia and the extension of humanitarian parole for Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Nicaraguans.
The report, published internally in May, prompted DHS to suspend travel authorization for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua who had applied for the program.
Sources familiar with the review of the nearly 101,000 sponsor applications said USCIS Fraud Detection and Homeland Security Directorate employees had reviewed more than two-thirds of the suspicious applications as of last week and had about 30,000 left to review and would likely not finish before the program is reinstated.
So far, six sponsor applications have been turned over to investigators from Homeland Security Investigations, a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement assigned through an agreement between USCIS and ICE to investigate possible criminal immigration fraud, the people familiar with the review said.
More than 2.6 million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have applied for entry through the program, known as CHNV (Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans) and a similar program for Ukrainians, according to the internal report.
This story was originally published by KeynoteUSAFor more details, click here.
Keynote USA
For the Latest News, Follow KeynoteUSA on Twitter Or Google News.
