Dead people, criminals, ‘Elvis Presley’ among sponsor applicants for Biden migrant parole programs

Elvis Presley died in 1977, but somehow he was among the people who applied to sponsor migrant “parolees” under the Biden administration, according to a government audit that excoriated the Department of Homeland Security for how it handled the now-defunct parole programs.

The Elvis impersonator wasn’t alone. More than 1,400 migrants were admitted to the U.S. despite agency files showing that their sponsors were dead, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm.

One application submitted a photo of journalist Connie Chung as an identity verification, and another used a photo of “NCIS” actor Cote de Pablo. Still another person applied to sponsor a migrant child even though he had a criminal history that included two child pornography offenses.

The parole programs reviewed by the GAO included one for Ukrainians and another that covered Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. They have since been canceled or suspended, but not before welcoming hundreds of thousands of migrants who lacked legal visas to enter the U.S.

GAO analysts described a ready-fire-aim approach to the programs, saying the Biden administration rushed to get them up and running and only later focused on the rampant fraud and national security risks among people who had already been admitted.

In the summer of 2024, the Biden administration suspended the program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, though it was tight-lipped about the reason.

GAO auditors revealed the reason: Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security Department agency that provides final approval for migrants to enter, reviewed a sample of cases from Venezuela and found that nearly 20% of sponsors were deemed to pose public safety or national security risks.

Some were linked to ongoing investigations into drug dealing or money laundering.

The Homeland Security Department had to pause action for 29,000 migrants who had been approved to enter but had not yet arrived. It ultimately canceled 8,100 of those travel permits.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services belatedly made improvements in the second half of 2024, roughly two years after the major parole programs were launched and only months before the new Trump administration was set to shut them down.

“These disastrous programs were nothing more than taxpayer-funded chauffeurs for foreign nationals to travel to the United States and take advantage of our immigration system,” said Nadgey Fones, a spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee, which, under Republican control, investigated the parole programs.

“To make matters worse, the Biden-Harris administration knew about allegations of human trafficking in one parole program but created new parole programs anyway,” Ms. Fones said. “President Trump put an end to Democrats’ immigration insanity in January.”

The parole programs were created to alleviate pressure on the southern border. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas figured that siphoning the migrants to fly to U.S. airports would reduce the unprecedented flow of illegal immigrants overrunning the Border Patrol.

Mr. Mayorkas asked the migrants to arrange for sponsors in the U.S. who would promise to help settle and financially support them so they wouldn’t become a burden.

GAO investigators said the initial vetting was severely lacking.

For example, under the law, parole is supposed to be used only in cases of urgent humanitarian need or significant benefit to the U.S. public. Neither Citizenship and Immigration Services, which vetted sponsors, nor Customs and Border Protection, which provided final approval at airports, actually verified whether the applicant was eligible for parole, the audit said.

Citizenship and Immigration Services said that wasn’t its job, and Customs and Border Protection said it figured USCIS or some other agency had already done it.

USCIS also admitted to GAO investigators that it didn’t do much to ensure sponsors were living up to their commitments to make sure migrants didn’t become burdens on taxpayers.

It did run a public tip line for migrants to report their sponsors. Still, the agency acknowledged that it received few tips because migrants, fearing their parole would be revoked, had no interest in reporting anything.

Besides, GAO said, Citizenship and Immigration Services described the sponsor’s agreement as more of a nudge than a firm commitment. The agency lacked the desire or means to force sponsors to support the migrants they had promised to support.

Among the findings:

• When the programs (CHNV for Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela and U4U for Uniting for Ukraine) kicked off, Citizenship and Immigration Services didn’t have a way to collect information about the reasons people were applying for parole.

• Fraud investigators identified cases of human traffickers trying to sponsor migrants for parole from Ukraine.

• The report confirmed reporting by The Washington Times that people were selling sponsorships to migrants for $5,000.

• Once in the U.S., parolees were largely left on their own, even if their parole passes expired. GAO said no Homeland Security Department agency tracked them and, under a Mayorkas directive, they weren’t considered targets for deportation anyway.

GAO said it came across cases in which a previously deported migrant returned as a parolee and authorities allowed them into the U.S. anyway.

The Homeland Security Department blamed “limited bedspace” in its detention facilities.

Citizenship and Immigration Services was run in the Biden administration by Ur Jaddou. She is now at the Niskanen Center, which didn’t respond to a request for comment for this report.

The Homeland Security Department said the report confirmed what Mr. Trump had been saying about the Biden programs before his return to office.

“DHS does not — and will not — sacrifice thorough screening and vetting, or abdicate its statutory responsibility to administer and enforce immigration laws,” said Jeffrey Bobich, director of financial management at the department.

The department agreed with the GAO’s suggestion to improve fraud mitigation in any further programs it creates, but disagreed with the suggestion to learn lessons about the parole programs in particular.

Mr. Bobich said the Homeland Security Department has no intention of re-creating the Biden-era programs, so there is no need to learn any lessons.

“The department believes ending these programs corrects these well-documented issues and plans no further action to apply lessons learned from these supporter-based parole processes to other ongoing operations,” the department said.

GAO included in its study another parole program aimed at immigrants approved for a family-based immigrant visa but who were waiting for a visa to become available. Under the family reunification parole program, they could wait in the U.S. rather than have to sit outside the country.

The Biden administration greatly expanded the program.

On Friday, the Trump administration ended the program for Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras.

“The desire to reunite families does not overcome the government’s responsibility to prevent fraud and abuse and to uphold national security and public safety,” Citizenship and Immigration Services said.