WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the House Committee on Homeland Security revealed documents obtained through a subpoena of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that identified over 50 airport locations, including our nation’s capital, used by DHS to help process into the country more than 400,000 inadmissible aliens through the administration’s unlawful Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) mass-parole program. The program was officially launched in January 2023, and the documents obtained by the Committee cover the period from January-August 2023—accounting for roughly 200,000 of these individuals.

According to these documents, as of mid-October 2023, there were 1.6 million inadmissible aliens awaiting travel authorizations through the CHNV program. In the documents, DHS further admits that none of these individuals have a legal basis to enter the country before being paroled through the program, stating, “All individuals paroled into the United States are, by definition, inadmissible, including those paroled under the CHNV Processes.”

Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) said,  “These documents expose the egregious lengths Secretary Mayorkas will go to ensure inadmissible aliens reach every corner of the country, from Orlando and Atlanta to Las Vegas and San Francisco. Secretary Mayorkas’ CHNV parole program is an unlawful sleight of hand used to hide the worsening border crisis from the American people. Implementing a program that allows otherwise inadmissible aliens to fly directly into the U.S.––not for significant public benefit or urgent humanitarian reasons as the Immigration and Nationality Act mandates––has been proven an impeachable offense. Following our subpoena and the House’s impeachment vote––especially in light of the Senate’s complete failure to fulfill its duty to hold a trial––the Committee will not rest until this administration is finally held accountable for its open-borders agenda and its devastating impact on our homeland security.”
 
According to the documents:

• The top 15 airport locations used for the CHNV program and the number of inadmissible aliens who flew into a port of entry between January-August 2023 were:
  1. Miami, Fla.: 91,821
  2. Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.: 60,461 
  3. New York City, N.Y.: 14,827
  4. Houston, Texas: 7,923 
  5. Orlando, Fla.: 6,043
  6. Los Angeles, Calif.: 3,271
  7. Tampa, Fla.: 3,237
  8. Dallas, Texas: 2,256 
  9. San Francisco, Calif.: 2,052
  10. Atlanta, Ga.: 1,796 
  11. Newark, N.J.: 1,498
  12. Washington, D.C.: 1,472
  13. Chicago, Ill.: 496 
  14. Las Vegas, Nev.: 483 
  15. Austin, Texas: 171 
• The other airports used for the program are located in: Aruba; Baltimore, Md.; Boston; Mass.; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands; Cincinnati, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Charlotte, N.C.; Dublin, Ireland; Denver, Colo.; Detroit, Mich.; Fresno, Calif.; Fort Myers, Fla.; Honolulu, Hawaii; Indianapolis, Ind.; Kansas City, Mo.; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.; Nassau, Bahamas; New Orleans, La.; Oakdale, La.; Ottawa, Canada; Philadelphia, Pa.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Portland, Ore.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Providence, R.I.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Sacramento, Calif.; San Juan, P.R.; Savannah, Ga.; San Antonio, Texas; San Diego, Calif.; Seattle, Wash.; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Jose, Calif.; St. Paul, Minn.; St. Louis, Mo.; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Background:

Since the beginning of the program in January 2023, 404,000 inadmissible aliens have been paroled into the country nationwide through the CHNV program. Nationwide encounters at ports of entry this fiscal year have increased by 44 percent compared to the first six months of Fiscal Year 2023. Over half of all monthly encounters at ports of entry this fiscal year were from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

In August 2023, Chairman Green sent a follow-up letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, demanding compliance with the Committee’s August 22, 2023 subpoena for critical data and information regarding the CHNV parole program. The Committee first requested this information on April 27, 2023, and after 103 days of delinquency from DHS, the Committee issued a subpoena to DHS, at which point the requested documents and information were produced.

As highlighted in the Committee’s first interim report on the border crisis last year and referenced in a March 2024 Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) report, the Biden administration created the CHNV parole program to grant travel authorizations for qualifying inadmissible aliens to fly into the country and be released under a two-year work authorization. In addition, DHS expanded the use of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s CBP One app from its intended commercial use to allow illegal immigrants who participate in the CHNV parole program to schedule appointments through the app. In March 2024, a Haitian national who entered the country through the CHNV program, was arrested for aggravated rape of a 15-year-old girl in Rockland, Massachusetts.

In February 2024, Secretary Mayorkas was impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, due to his refusal to comply with the laws passed by Congress and his breach of the public trust. Secretary Mayorkas defied the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), abusing the INA’s permissibility for parole, which may be granted only on a case-by-case and temporary basis, for significant public benefit or urgent humanitarian need. The use of the CHNV program to release inadmissible aliens into the interior violates the law’s clear direction.
 

 
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