Biden administration pauses 'inadmissible alien' flights into the country

Fox News has learned that the Biden administration is placing a pause on a travel program that flies “inadmissible aliens” into the country.

The federal program grants travel to 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV) per month into the United States as part of the immigration and parole process.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stopped issuing travel authorizations to Venezuelans on July 6 and authorizations for the three remaining nationalities on July 18, a congressional source told Fox News Digital.

The pause comes from “out of an abundance of caution,” a Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Fox News Digital, after internal reporting discovered fraud occurring in the application process.

“Out of an abundance of caution, DHS has temporarily paused the issuance of advanced travel authorizations for new beneficiaries while it undertakes a review of supporter applications. DHS will restart application processing as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

In its 2023 “fact sheet” announcing the CHNV parole program, the White House explained that under the new parole system, “Up to 30,000 individuals per month from these four countries, who have an eligible sponsor and pass vetting and background checks, can come to the United States for a period of two years and receive work authorization.”

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) website, the federal government “may grant advance travel authorization” on a “case-by-case basis” to seek parole for up to 30,000 individuals in the CHNV program.

Following reports of almost 400,000 individuals being flown to the interior of the U.S. as part of the parole program, America First Legal (AFL), Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and 20 other state attorneys general launched a legal challenge against a federal program.

Although previous legal challenges were dismissed, AFL filed a motion to reconsider arguing that the initial opinion “applied the wrong standard” and that “under the opinion’s articulated standard, the facts demonstrated that the Program led to increased CHNV nationals entering the United States.”