Issues first subpoena following numerous unanswered document requests 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) served Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas a subpoena, mandating that DHS produce outstanding documents and information to assist the Committee’s oversight of DHS’s Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) parole program, which the Committee initially requested on April 27, 2023. The subpoena requires the outstanding documents and information no later than August 29, 2023.

In a cover letter, Chairman Green states, “[T]he Committee made numerous attempts to accommodate the Department’s production of the documents and information at issue. The requests from the April 27 letter, however, remain unsatisfied and are now 103 days delinquent with no definitive timeline for production. Most recently, when the Committee offered another telephone meeting to secure a production schedule, the Department ignored the Committee’s offer and instead has continued to cast doubt on any definitive timeline for future production. This demonstrated approach to indefinitely protract production necessitates the enclosed subpoena.” 

Chairman Green concludes, “The Committee requires the subpoenaed data, documents, and other information to fully evaluate potential legislation to reform the Department’s authority and operations. The Department’s functions relating to border and port security are directly within the purview of the Committee’s legislative and oversight authority.”

Background:

The Immigration and Nationality Act grants DHS a limited authority to grant parole and release for otherwise detainable aliens into the country “on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.” Using this very limited authority, the Biden administration created the CHNV parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. In addition, the Department 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 to appear at interior ports of entry and be released into the country under a two-year work authorization. More than 180,000 aliens have entered the country under the CHNV parole program since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2023.

DHS is currently 103 days late in providing documents and information pertaining to the policies, procedures, and criteria of this program, the impact of the program on the border crisis, any agreements with the Mexican government concerning this program, and more.

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