Does Biden’s America Even Have Borders? His Free Pass For 24,000-Plus Venezuelans Says No

In another abuse of presidential authority, Joe Biden has snapped his fingers and created an immigration program out of thin air that grants 24,000 Venezuelans entry into the United States. Amid the turmoil and lawlessness that this administration has caused at the southern border, too little attention is being paid to the White House’s abuse of the obscure legal authority known as “humanitarian parole.”

Under the law, the president’s authority to admit foreigners into the country is strictly controlled by the visa process and is set in consultation with Congress, along with the number of refugees the country will accept. Like the spending of federal funds, it is a process regulated by the rule of law.

But there is a dangerous policy loophole Biden is abusing. Buried in the basic U.S. immigration statute known as the Immigration and Nationality Act is Section 212(d)(5)(A), which authorizes the president to admit individual foreigners who would not otherwise qualify for a visa on a case-by-case basis for “urgent humanitarian reasons,” such as their receiving medical treatment, or for “significant public benefit” (to the U.S.) such as participation in a judicial hearing.  

This humanitarian parole exceptional authority (“parole” is the lawyer’s term to describe legal, short-term admission into the U.S.) was designed for a very limited number of irregular cases. It was never designed to allow the White House to launch massive immigration programs, admitting tens of thousands for what is almost certainly permanent settlement in the U.S., but this is what it has regrettably become.

If the president can simply say “voila” and bypass the legal system with a new special program for Venezuelans, why does Congress even bother with setting quotas and refugee numbers? 

And why did Biden arbitrarily set the number at 24,000? Neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has offered any rationale for this number. It’s likely that either Biden or DHS Secretary Mayorkas pulled the number out of thin air. Similarly, back in April, Biden looked into his crystal ball while inventing the “United for Ukrainians” humanitarian parole program and decided the U.S. would grant humanitarian parole to 100,000 Ukrainians. Again, there was no justification for that figure.  

But then — to no one’s surprise — it turns out there really is no limit for Ukrainians. We have now learned that the announced 100,000 figure was “never a cap.” Since April, when “United for Ukrainians” was launched, well over 100,000 Ukrainians have already been admitted into the U.S., and the entries continue. Whoever qualifies can come after fulfilling a flimsy process that consists of completing a modicum of sponsorship paperwork. Ultimately, all these Ukrainians will be entitled to benefits reserved for American citizens under this program. Very few are likely to return to their country after the war. 

That’s why nobody inside or outside the government seriously believes that the 24,000 figure is fixed for Venezuelans. The president announced in March 2021 that he would grant temporary legal protected status to more than 320,000 Venezuelans already

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