WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Today, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD released the following statement after the Biden administration announced a new executive order (EO) that would effectively grant mass amnesty to, at minimum, hundreds of thousands of inadmissible aliens:

“President Biden’s election-year, eleventh-hour ploy for mass amnesty is not surprising, but it is an important reminder for anyone who doubted––this administration was never serious about securing the border. By allowing otherwise inadmissible aliens to remain in the country indefinitely through a ‘parole-in-place’ sleight of hand, and to receive generous, taxpayer-funded benefits, this president is sending a loud and clear message to any would-be border crosser that the door is not only wide open—there’s a welcome mat. Biden and his now-impeached DHS secretary have paroled roughly two million inadmissible aliens into the country, likely with no plan to remove them once their parole expires. Today’s executive order further legitimizes unlawful entry into our country––an affront to the rule of law and an insult to every American.”

Background:

President Biden’s executive order uses the process referred to by some as “parole-in-place”—a concept initially based on a deeply flawed 1998 memo produced by the Clinton administration—to provide amnesty to the inadmissible alien spouses of American citizens. As noted by CBS News, such action is prohibited by the laws passed by Congress. This represents another abuse of the parole authority granted under Section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which authorizes the federal government to grant parole to otherwise-inadmissible aliens only on a case-by-case basis, for urgent humanitarian reason or significant public benefit.

Not only has Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas directed Border Patrol agents to parole inadmissible aliens into our communities en masse—policies that have been repeatedly struck down by federal courts—he has also implemented the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) and CBP One mass-parole programs, among others, to release hundreds of thousands of inadmissible aliens into our country via official ports of entry—individuals which DHS has admitted are otherwise “inadmissible.”

Now, President Biden is allowing inadmissible aliens who are married to American citizens to be given “parole-in-place,” which will then allow them and their children to remain in the United States while awaiting the opportunity to obtain a green card far sooner than they otherwise could, as well as other benefits—not only unlawful on its face, but a blatant slap in the face to those who have entered the United States through lawful means, and those seeking to do so.

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