DHS pauses migrant flights from Central America after fraud claims

The Department of Homeland Security paused President Biden’s migrant flight program after a report revealed sponsors were being improperly vetted. 

The program allowed 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to come into the United States with the support of a financial sponsor. They could live and work here for two years. 

DHS announced application approvals are temporarily paused. Here’s why: 

The organization Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, obtained an internal investigation that found U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services identified thousands of applications with fraudulent information. 

The investigation found false social security numbers, phone numbers, and addresses on the I-34A forms filled out by sponsors. It was discovered that 100 addresses were used on 19,000 forms. Those addresses included warehouses, storage units and a mobile park home. 

They also found applications using the same exact answers to questions, in fact one copied answer was used more than 10,000 times. 

“Not only has the administration made a mockery of the law, DHS’s internal investigation proves that USCIS ignored blatant fraud and confirmed applications despite fictitious information,” FAIR president Dan Stein said in a statement.  

DHS said there were no problems with vetting migrants, just sponsors. 

DHS told the AP in a statement that the beneficiaries “are thoroughly screened and vetted prior to their arrival to the United States.” The department also said it would, “restart application processing as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards.”

Since the program was fully introduced in January 2023, approximately 494,000 people have been let into the country.