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• The decision to freeze the program is related to allegations of fraud in applications | Main photo: EFE

The U.S. government has temporarily suspended the issuance of new humanitarian permits for migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua, known as “humanitarian parole,” which allowed people from these countries to legally travel and enter U.S. territory.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported on Friday, August 2, EFE on the decision to pause the program, which grants entry to up to 30,000 people from these four countries to the United States each month and allows them to obtain a work permit for a period of two years.

The program, which began in late 2022 only for Venezuelan citizens and was later expanded to include the other three nationalities, has allowed the entry of almost half a million migrants to the US, according to DHS data.

The decision to freeze the program is related to allegations of fraud in applications, according to the American network. Fox News this Friday.

Details of the measure

A DHS spokeswoman did not confirm this information to EFEbut explained that the agency decided “as a precautionary measure” to freeze the allocation of travel authorizations “while it reviews the sponsors’ requests.”

The agency will “resume processing of applications as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards,” the spokeswoman said in a written statement.

To apply for the permit, migrants need to have a sponsor in the United States who already has legal status and can demonstrate that they have sufficient income to financially support the beneficiary of the program.

According to Fox, an internal DHS report found high levels of fraud in sponsor applications, leading to a pause in the granting of new permits starting last month.

The program, which has been the target of criticism and legal action by conservative opposition, is part of the Biden administration’s measures to curb migration at the southern border.

The measure, coupled with the asylum restrictions that the government has been implementing over the past two years, has helped reduce the number of people from these four countries who are arrested at the border with Mexico.

The decline has been especially noticeable in apprehensions of people from Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua, according to CBP data.

In December 2022, a month before the program was expanded to include these nationalities, authorities reported more than 30,000 detentions of migrants from the three countries.

That number dropped dramatically to fewer than 900 arrests in February 2023 and has remained below 15,000 arrests per month since then.

People who arrive in the United States on parole are granted temporary authorization for two years to legally remain in the country and obtain a work permit.

Thousands of Venezuelan migrants have entered the US with humanitarian parole

More than 435,000 migrants, including Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans, entered the United States through humanitarian parole from January 5, 2023, to April 17, 2024, according to senior White House officials.

“We have allowed more than 435,000 Latin American migrants to arrive safely and in an orderly manner using our humanitarian permit processes,” said members of President Joe Biden’s administration in an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) news portal.

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The immigration measure was established by the Biden administration in October 2022 primarily for Venezuelans, due to the fact that the southern border between the United States and Mexico saw record numbers of migrants wanting to cross into that country. However, it was expanded to Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua in January 2023.

What is CBP One?

The CBP One app is a Department of Homeland Security tool that has been in operation since January 2023 with the aim of facilitating legal arrivals across the US-Mexico border.

Related news

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that he will speak on Thursday afternoon with his counterparts from Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and from Colombia, Gustavo Petro, about the crisis in Venezuela, where all three agree on calling for transparency in the vote count.

“Yes, we will probably speak on the phone with President Lula and President Petro today at noon in Mexico, around 2 p.m. (20:00 GMT). We are going to talk about the positions that exist in the case of Venezuela. We have acted with prudence,” López Obrador said at his morning press conference.

The three leaders have not yet recognized the re-election of President Nicolás Maduro, as proclaimed by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela, and they agree in asking that all the minutes be published and waiting to accept any result.

But there are nuances in their positions, as López Obrador has stated that there is “no evidence” of the electoral fraud denounced by the opposition, Lula has considered that “it is a normal electoral process” and Petro has warned of “serious doubts surrounding the electoral process.”

The Mexican leader announced that his approach in the joint meeting will be “that there be no violence,” that “the will of the Venezuelan people be respected,” that “evidence and the minutes of the electoral results be presented,” and “that there be no interference,” particularly from the Organization of American States (OAS).

“We will wait (for the results) and yes, we will have that conversation, but that is our proposal, that there be no violence, that confidence be given to the electoral authorities of Venezuela, that the records be collected, because it cannot be said that one won or the other won, if there is no evidence,” he said.

López Obrador believed in Maduro’s statements, saying that on Wednesday he “proposed that they will hand over the records” and that he “is asking the corresponding electoral body to call on the parties, the candidates, to hand over the information they have.”

For this reason, he asked that “everyone participate, that everyone contribute the data they have.”

“If there is a will to clarify things and respect the vote of the citizens, an agreement will be reached. That is what I hope, that an agreement is reached, that there is dialogue, and that there is evidence, but that we do not rush to disqualify anyone and wait,” he said.

On the other hand, he questioned the role of the OAS in the conflict for “setting itself up as an electoral judge,” defending Mexico’s absence from the urgent meeting that the organization called on Wednesday.

The president said that the elections are “a matter that fundamentally concerns Venezuelans.”

“By not acting prudently, the OAS is not helping, which is why we are not participating, because it seems like an appendix of hegemonic governments or conservative right-wing governments, authoritarian, in fact anti-democratic,” he said.

Mexico City / EFE