The Biden-Harris administration is set to allow protections for Venezuelan migrants to lapse at the end of the month, according to a report by CBS News.
The parole program, which allowed migrants to come to the United States from Venezuela following a vetting process and remain without fear of removal, would not be extended.
Not all of the approximately 117,000 Venezuelans admitted under the program would be affected, but those who first arrived two years ago would see their protections lapse.
“If the report turns out to be true, I think that is a mistake, and the affected Venezuelans will need to find other ways to remain lawfully in the United States,” Stuart Anderson, executive director at the National Foundation for American Policy, told Newsweek in a statement.
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“Legal pathways decrease illegal entry, so unless the Biden administration convinces Congress to create more work visas, it would be better to expand the monthly numbers for the humanitarian parole program, not restrict people who already entered through it.”
The administration initially launched the program in October 2022 to deter Venezuelans from traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border, offering them a legal pathway into the U.S. if they had American-based sponsors. In January 2023, the program was expanded to include migrants from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua, as citizens from these countries were also crossing the southern U.S. border in record numbers at the time.
By the end of August, 530,000 migrants had entered the U.S. through the CHNV program, according to government data. They were granted legal permission to live and work in the U.S. for two years under a provision of immigration law called parole, which allows presidents to admit foreigners on humanitarian or public interest grounds.
Some advocates anticipated that the Biden administration would extend the parole status for CHNV migrants, similar to how it did for tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees and Ukrainian refugees who were also admitted to the U.S. under the parole authority.
Two anonymous U.S. officials told CBS News that the Department of Homeland Security has decided against offering Venezuelans parole extensions, otherwise known as “re-parole.”
Venezuelan parolees will receive notices directing them to apply for another immigration benefit or leave the country, according to officials.
It remains unknown at this stage on the status of Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans, whose parole periods will not start to expire until early 2025.
Trump has signaled his intent to terminate the CHNV policy, along with other immigration programs implemented by the Biden-Harris administration.
Trump has said he would force the million-plus people who arrived under humanitarian parole or were allowed to stay in the U.S. through Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to leave if he wins a second term.
At a rally, Trump vowed to deport certain migrants in the country legally. “Get ’em the hell out!” he said to cheers and chants of “send them back.”
The American Immigration Council released a study that suggests carrying out mass deportations of illegal immigrants would cost the country over $315 billion.
Experts previously told Newsweek that Trump would struggle to make good on the threat.
“In general, deportation is for people who lack immigration status,” Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School, said.
“People here on parole or temporary protected status have a status, so they shouldn’t be put into deportation proceedings unless a separate ground of deportability (e.g., a criminal conviction) applies to them.”
GOP lawmakers have also criticized Trump’s plans to carry out mass deportations, and Rep. Tony Gonzales, who represents Texas’s 23rd Congressional District, said that the U.S. lacks the “resources” to carry out Trump’s flagship policy.
“You’re not going to round up 10 million people and deport them. It’s simple—you do not have the infrastructure to do that,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales also argued that deportations should start with bad actors and illegal migrants who have committed serious crimes and wants to see a crackdown on Venezuelan gangs, whom he described as “pure evil.”
“These Venezuelan gangs are pure evil, and they will rot any society, any community that they associate themselves with,” Gonzales said.
Notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has been thrust to the forefront of the national conversation surrounding immigration after footage surfaced of armed gang members storming an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.
