Based on government data obtained by the media, it has been reported that the Biden administration permitted over a million migrants to enter the United States. Currently, Republicans are making efforts to limit the administration’s authority to allow further entry of migrants.
In 1952, the U.S. government established a program enabling migrants without visas to enter the country under specific conditions. These conditions include escaping a humanitarian crisis in their home country or contributing to a public benefit upon entry. Although beneficiaries do not receive a green card or permanent legal status, they are granted entry with a “parole” status, valid for up to two years.
With President Biden advocating for a legislation that allocates billions of dollars in aid to support Ukraine in its war against Russia, Republicans are resisting. They declare their refusal to vote in favor of the bill unless there is a substantial reduction in the scale of the parole program.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) presented statistics from the Department of Homeland Security, revealing that between 2014 and 2019, an annual average of 5,600 individuals were granted entry through the parole program at the southern border. In contrast, the parole program allowed up to 112,000 migrants from various nations to enter the country during that period.
According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a research organization at Syracuse University, the parole program permitted entry to over 300,000 individuals into the United States during the initial 10 months of 2023.
Throughout history, presidents have utilized the parole program to receive migrants fleeing regions ravaged by conflict. For instance, at the conclusion of the Vietnam War, the government extended parole to 100,000 Vietnamese refugees, and in the 1990s, around 6,000 Kurds were evacuated from Iraq through the same program.
Recently, the Biden administration utilized the parole program to admit 80,000 Afghans into the country following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
With an increasing influx of migrants from the southern border, including cities like New York and Chicago labeled as Democrat-run “sanctuary cities,” Republicans and voters are advocating for a reduction in President Biden’s utilization of the parole program.
