U.S. won't extend legal status for 530,000 migrants who arrived under Biden program

The Biden administration will not be extending the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants who were allowed to fly to the U.S. under a sponsorship program designed to reduce illegal border crossings, the Department of Homeland Security announced Friday.

Instead, migrants who have come to the U.S. under the policy will be directed to try to obtain legal status through other immigration programs, leave the country or face deportation proceedings.

The administration first launched the sponsorship program in October 2022 to discourage Venezuelans from traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border by offering them a legal way to enter the country if American-based individuals agreed to sponsor them. It was then expanded in January 2023 to include migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua, whose citizens were also crossing the U.S. southern border in record numbers at the time.

As of the end of August, 530,000 migrants from these four countries had flown into the U.S. under the policy, known as the CHNV program, government figures show. They were granted permission to live and work in the U.S. legally for two years under an immigration law known as parole, which presidents can use to welcome foreigners on humanitarian or public interest grounds.

Roughly 214,000  Haitians, 117,000 Venezuelans, 111,000 Cubans and 96,000 Nicaraguans have come to the U.S. so far under the policy, according to government data. The first group set to start losing their parole status this month are Venezuelans, who began coming to the U.S. through the CHNV program in October 2022. The parole periods of Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans will not start to expire until early next year. 

Some advocates expected the Biden administration to extend the parole status of CHNV migrants, like it did for tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees and Ukrainian refugees who were also allowed into the U.S. under the parole authority.

But the Department of Homeland Security decided against offering migrants who arrived in the U.S. under the CHNV initiative parole extensions, or what the government calls "re-parole." Instead, these immigrant parolees, as the government calls them, will be given notices instructing them to apply for another immigration benefit or leave the country.

"If you have not sought a lawful status or period of authorized stay, you will need to leave the United States before your authorized parole period expires, or you may be placed in removal proceedings after your period of parole expires," the government said in a notice to parolees.

CBS News first reported on Thursday the decision to not renew the parole status of the Venezuelan CHNV arrivals.

Some of those who have arrived under the sponsorship policy may be eligible to remain in the U.S. legally through other programs. For example, many Haitians and Venezuelans are eligible for Temporary Protected Status if they came to the U.S. before June 4, 2024, and July 31, 2023, respectively. Cuban parolees can also request permanent U.S. residency, or a green card, through a Cold War-era immigration law.

CHNV arrivals can also apply for asylum, but that benefit is only available to those who can prove they are fleeing persecution based on their religion, race, political views or other grounds. Those with U.S. citizen relatives who are willing to sponsor them may be eligible for an immigrant visa.

Still, the decision to refrain from offering parole extensions to migrants under the sponsor policy could leave many of them in legal limbo, without the ability to work lawfully and no longer exempt from deportation, unless they manage to get another status. Whether any parolees could eventually be deported is unclear, since the governments in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela currently reject or limit U.S. deportations. The U.S. has conducted regular deportations to Haiti in recent years.

The administration's decision to not offer CHNV arrivals parole renewals drew significant ire from progressives and immigration advocates, who have argued Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans are being treated differently than the Afghans and Ukrainians who came to the country under similar processes.

"When Trump is running on promises to revoke legal status & conduct mass deportations, why would the Biden admin force more people into legal limbo?" Andrea Flores, a former Biden administration official, wrote on X. "They re-paroled Afghans & Ukrainians, why single out Venezuelans & make them uniquely vulnerable?"

But the decision could also blunt criticism from Republicans, who have strongly denounced the CHNV policy as a fraud-ridden program that circumvents the legal immigration processes established by Congress. The policy was paused for weeks this summer as officials investigated fraud concerns relating to those applying to sponsor migrants.

The CHNV policy has been a pillar of the Biden administration's strategy to deal with the unprecedented levels of migrant crossings recorded at the U.S.-Mexico border since it took office in 2021. It has paired the program, and other processes for migrants to enter the country legally, with restrictions on asylum for those crossing the southern border unlawfully. 

Following the enactment of a partial ban on asylum claims in early June, unlawful border crossings have fallen to and remain at a four-year-low. The drop in illegal crossings by the migrants eligible for the sponsorship policy has been even more pronounced, federal data show. 

The future of the CHNV policy remains unclear. Former President Donald Trump has indicated he wants to end it, along with other Biden administration immigration programs.