Trump administration freezes immigrant applications for Biden-era programs

• The Trump administration put a freeze on applications for Biden-era immigrant parole programs. Officials said they want to enhance vetting to reduce fraud and national security concerns.
• More than 750,000 immigrants from Ukraine and Latin America entered under these programs during the Biden administration.
• A report found significant fraud in the applications.

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The Trump administration enacted an indefinite pause on immigration applications for migrants from Latin America and Ukraine who entered the U.S. under Biden-era programs. During the freeze, administration officials will work to enhance vetting, reduce fraud and prioritize national security concerns. 

CBS News reported on the move, which obtained a memo from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services outlining the new instructions to staff. The report stated that the pause would cast a cloud of uncertainty over immigrants applying to stay in the U.S. legally and, in some cases, permanently. 

This will impact parole programs, which allow immigrants with no other legal pathway to stay in the United States for humanitarian reasons or if they offer a “significant public benefit.”

Parole temporarily protects people from deportation but does not provide a pathway to citizenship. Parolees can receive a work permit but are expected to leave when their parole ends. 

It’s unclear exactly how many immigrants will be impacted by the “administrative pause,” but hundreds of thousands entered under the programs during the Biden administration. United for Ukraine allowed approximately 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion to enter. Additionally, the CNHV program allowed in about 530,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. All of those accepted had to have a sponsor who is an American citizen.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform issued a report in August finding that officials were “rubber stamping” parole applications, which led to “massive fraud.” Their investigation found false Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses on the I-34A forms filled out by sponsors. Investigators also found that sponsors used 100 addresses—including warehouses and storage units—on 19,000 applications.

The Biden administration granted parole 105 times more than the first Trump and Obama administrations.

Former President Joe Biden started the CNHV program in January 2023 to curtail the record number of illegal crossings at the southern border. While entries did go down, they remained at historic levels throughout his administration.