The Biden administration has greenlit an expanded use of a 1950s-era program to allow tens of thousands of migrants temporary residency in the United States for humanitarian or other urgent reasons, deepening its use of executive authority to shape border policy.
The newer approach to the program, known as parole, offers entry to migrants from specific countries under special conditions, such as applying online. The United States will accept up to 30,000 migrants a month from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, while also tightening border enforcement.
While previous administrations have used parole to deal with emergencies or humanitarian challenges, Biden has made more frequent use of the authority than any other president. A previous use of the program, launched in October and limited to Venezuelans, had a one-time cap of 24,000.
Biden officials say they are taking an innovative approach and using the legal tools available to manage a dysfunctional system cracking from decades of congressional inaction on immigration reform.
Administration officials say expanded use of parole is paired with a tougher enforcement approach at the border that threatens to send more migrants back to Mexico if they eschew the new legal pathways and cross into the United States illegally. US border authorities will broaden their use of the pandemic-era Title 42 public health law to carry out quick-returns to Mexico, they said.
Critics of Biden’s latest plan say parole is meant for exceptional circumstances, and not to create a parallel immigration track for hundreds of thousands of new arrivals.