400,000 migrants flown to US under Biden parole program ‘likely staying here forever’: experts

The roughly 400,000 migrants allowed into the US under the Biden administration’s Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan [CHVN] parole program will most likely stay in the US indefinitely, several experts told The Post

The program first began in October 2022 for Venezuelans and was expanded in November 2023 to allow 30,000 migrants per month to enter the US for up to two years “for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”

Department of Homeland Security data revealed 400,000 migrants have taken advantage of the program by the end of February.

Immigration experts say the huge influx — equivalent to 1,000 people per day — are unlikely to simply go home at the end of the two year parole period.

“They’re overwhelming the system [which] more than likely will result in these people staying here forever,” Donald Trump’s former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan told The Post.

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Parolees have three options — the DHS can extend their parole period, they can hire a lawyer to establish legal residency or illegally overstay in the US.

The Biden administration is not likely to hunt down parolees who merely overstay their two years in the US, Homan said.

“ICE is not looking for noncriminal fugitives, they’re not,” Homan said.

However, under a second Trump administration, migrants overstaying in the US would be much more likely to become “a target for removal,” according to Homan.

Former ICE field office director John Fabbricatore confirmed to The Post that if parolees on the program are not removed by the Biden administration, many are likely to overstay and “be added to the non-detained ICE docket,” meaning they will be listed, but not actively pursued.

Fabbricatore wanred that docket currently has around “seven million cases ICE is already monitoring.”

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The parole process is supposed to be utilized for “those with “urgent humanitarian reasons,” but Fabbricatore claims it’s being improperly used as “an immigration status”.

Retired Deputy Patrol Agent in Charge of the El Paso Station Clay Thomas added he expects parole periods to be automatically extended because that’s the easiest option.

“They’re not gonna have people tracking them down so they’re just gonna do a blanket extension on that two years because that’s just the click of a button,” Thomas told The Post, adding it will be “nearly impossible” to find tens of thousands of people given “the volume [of people] and the lack of tracking on” migrants.

Migrants on parole do have a range of legal options open to them for extending their stays legally.

Cubans, for example, are able to apply for permanent residency — commonly known as a green card — after one year in the US thanks to the Cuban Adjustment Act, according to Miami-based immigration attorney Maria Herrera Mellado.

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All parolees who arrived through the program can apply for visas, asylum, and some can try for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which temporarily shields them from removal based on issues in their home countries.

Most commonly, Venezuelan, Haitian, and Nicaraguan parolees often arrive through the parole program and then apply for asylum while in the US, Mellado said.

A subpoena from the House Homeland Security Committee recently made the DHS disclose data on the CHVN program, showing most migrants paroled into the US are landing in Florida.

Roughly 80% of the parolees who arrived between January and August 2023 went to Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa Bay, according to the data.

Mellado said her Cuban and Venezuelan clients flying into Miami through the parole program are staying in the area to reunite with their families.

“This is their final destination,” Mellado said.

Meanwhile, there is a long line of migrants hoping to be accepted into the program , with 1.6 million applications awaiting approval, DHS said.

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