The Biden administration plans to restart this week a humanitarian program (CHNV) that allows migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba to seek asylum in the United States. The program was suspended weeks ago amid allegations of widespread fraud, NBC News reported.
The program was halted in July by Customs and Border Protection (CBP): travel authorizations for Venezuelans were stopped on July 6, followed by those for other nationalities on July 18. At the center of the concerns are the “sponsors,” people living legally in the United States who agree to financially support the migrants upon their arrival.
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigation has uncovered disturbing irregularities, with more than 100,000 applications filed by just over 3,000 serial sponsors. Among the anomalies detected were thousands of applications using the same addresses and phone numbers, including a commercial warehouse in Orlando, Florida, and Social Security numbers belonging to deceased individuals.
The practices have raised concerns of human trafficking, prompting authorities to suspend the program for further review. A government official said about 30,000 applications remain pending, and when the program resumes, they will be manually vetted with enhanced processes. Potential fraudsters will be subject to further investigations, and six sponsors have already been referred to authorities for possible criminal immigration fraud.
The Biden administration wants to revive the program quickly, saying it deters migrants from recipient countries from trying to enter the United States illegally. Since launching in October 2022 for Venezuelans, the program was expanded in January 2023 to include Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans. In total, more than 2.6 million people from the four countries have applied to enter, and more than 530,000 have received travel authorizations. However, it remains unclear how many migrants were able to enter with the help of serial sponsors.
