US suspends migrant sponsorship program due to fraud concerns

The Biden administration has suspended a migrant sponsorship policy it put in place to discourage illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border due to concerns about fraud among sponsors, officials said Friday.

The policy allows up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to legally travel to the United States each month if U.S. sponsors agree to support them financially. The administration launched the program in late 2022 and expanded it in early 2023 to deter migrants from those crisis-hit countries from traveling to the U.S. southern border.

The Department of Homeland Security said it has stopped issuing travel documents to people applying for the program while it reviews applications filed by U.S.-based sponsors.

“As a precautionary measure, DHS has temporarily suspended the issuance of advance travel authorizations for new beneficiaries while it reviews applications for support,” the department said in a statement Friday. “DHS will resume processing applications as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards.”

Fox News was first to report DHS's decision to suspend travel permits under the program.

DHS first stopped granting travel authorization to Venezuelans under the policy, known as CHNV, in July, then extended the pause to the other three nationalities, two people familiar with the internal measures told CBS News.

The pause, the sources added, was triggered by concerns raised by the fraud detection arm of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which noted that a significant number of potential sponsors were applying to sponsor multiple migrants.

The suspected fraud under investigation involves people in the United States who apply to sponsor migrants, not the migrants themselves, the sources said. Public reports have suggested that some people have advertised sponsorships online. Potential sponsors must be U.S. citizens, residents or have legal status in the United States.

In its statement, DHS said it refers cases of immigration fraud to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. It also said it has not “identified any issues” with the vetting of migrants eligible for the sponsorship initiative.

Tennessee Rep. Mark Greene, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the program's suspension “vindicates” his concerns about it.

“This is exactly what happens when you create an illegal mass parole program to spare your administration the political embarrassment and bad image of overreaching,” Greene said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration should end the CHNV program immediately.”

Since its inception, the CHNV policy has allowed about 520,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to fly to U.S. airports after rounds of security checks, according to government data.

While arrivals of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela at the U.S. southern border have spiked in recent years, they have fallen dramatically after the Biden administration implemented policies specific to those nationalities. The administration has combined the CHNV program with a policy of returning migrants from those countries to Mexico if they enter the United States illegally.

Republican-led states have challenged the CHNV initiative in federal court, arguing that it violates the intent of the Humanitarian Parole Act that the Biden administration has invoked to admit migrants under the program. Earlier this year, a federal judge in Texas dismissed the Republican states’ lawsuit, finding that they had not been harmed by the policy. The states have appealed that decision.

The number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border hit record highs in 2022 and 2023. But it has plummeted this year, hitting its lowest level in nearly four years in July. Officials attribute the massive decline to President Biden’s crackdown on asylum seekers, scorching summer temperatures and Mexico’s efforts to stop migrants.

More from Camilo Montoya-Galvez

Camilo Montoya-Galvez is an immigration reporter for CBS News. Based in Washington, D.C., he covers immigration issues and politics.

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