The United States (US) government said Friday (2/8) that it was temporarily suspending a program that allows citizens of four countries to enter the US on humanitarian grounds while it reviews the vetting and screening process for sponsor applications.
The program is part of the Biden administration's efforts to improve legal pathways into the United States and discourage illegal border crossings. But it has been criticized by Republicans as too lenient.
The program allows up to 30,000 people to enter the United States each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela if they have a sponsor and meet other requirements. Sponsors must be living in the United States lawfully and have sufficient financial resources to support the sponsored person during their stay.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security (Department of Homeland Security/DHS) said in a statement that it was pausing the issuance of travel authorizations under the program “out of an abundance of caution” while it reviews supporting applications.
A DHS official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said new approvals had been paused since mid-July to strengthen screening and vetting but the application portal remained open.
The official said DHS was pausing processing “in an orderly manner” and expected approvals to resume in the coming weeks.
On Friday (Aug. 2), the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that advocates for lower immigration levels, said it had obtained an internal review that found fraud in the program, including fake Social Security numbers and multiple applications listing the same address.
A second DHS official said the draft report featured cases that needed further review and were not necessarily fraudulent.
DHS said its screening of U.S.-based sponsors is separate from its screening of program participants. DHS added that it “has not identified any issues of concern related to the screening and vetting of beneficiaries.”
As of June 30, about 495,000 people from those countries had entered the United States through the program, which began for Venezuelans in 2022 and other countries in 2023, according to DHS statistics. (ft)
