WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican members of a U.S. House Judiciary Committee panel grilled the head of the Department of Homeland Security, which is tasked with processing legal pathways to immigration, during a contentious hearing Wednesday on the Biden administration’s parole program that provides short-lived protection to nationals of some countries , examined.
This program provides short-lived work permits and allows nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to remain in the country if they are sponsored by someone in the United States.
California Rep. Tom McClintock, chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement, accused U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of creating “unlawful” pathways to legal immigration through humanitarian parole programs – an authority that presidents have had since the 1950s have used for years.
Full Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio also questioned USCIS Director Ur Jaddou about whether parole programs “of this magnitude” had existed before.
Since President Joe Biden created the program in 2022, the agency has paroled more than 500,000 people.
Jaddou said presidents have used some form of parole power in the past.
The panel’s top Democrat, Washington state Rep. Pramila Jayapal, criticized Republicans for seeking to restrict legal pathways to immigration, arguing that the U.S. workforce relies on immigrants.
“The truth is that we benefit from the contributions of immigrants and their families in every single area of work,” she said.
The financing structure is to blame
USCIS is a roughly $5 billion agency that is funded primarily by immigrant filing fees — about 96% — rather than congressional appropriations, which make up the remaining 4% of its budget.
Jayapal defended the agency, arguing that Jaddou needed to rebuild USCIS after the first Trump administration and a budget deficit due to the COVID-19 pandemic that led to office closures and plummeting fees.
The agency processes, among other things, naturalization applications, green card applications, family visas, some work visas, humanitarian programs and adoptions of children from non-U.S. countries.
Jaddou said one of the biggest challenges is that in the event of a funding crisis, the fee base could cause USCIS to freeze funding and limit hiring and overall efficiency.
“We do not have effective legal immigration systems in place to meet the needs of the nation,” she said.
For example, Jaddou said funding constraints limit the number of asylum officers hired.
“It limits us in our humanitarian work,” she said.
Questions about fraud
Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona questioned Jaddou about fraud in the parole program, which led to a short-lived pause in applications over the summer to investigate some of the U.S.-based sponsors.
“The program was paused for five weeks because of fraud,” Biggs said.
McClintock asked Jaddou if she knew how many parolees had changed their immigration status and how many parolees had been renewed since the program began in 2022.
Jaddou said she didn’t have those numbers, which frustrated McClintock.
“This is outrageous,” he said. “These questions were asked of you in September, you were told before this hearing that they would be asked again and you were advised to have answers for us. These are fundamental data questions.”
California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren asked what improvements USCIS has made in airy of its investigations into U.S.-based sponsors.
Jaddou responded that the agency has added biometric requirements such as fingerprints and photos and allowed automated systems to cross-check Social Security numbers. She said employees were also retrained and given guidance to watch for potential fraud.
“We saw some problems and took action,” Jaddou said.
New Jersey Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew said he is frustrated with the agency’s backlog and that it takes years to process green cards.
“I think you’re doing a bad job,” he said to Jaddou. “They’ve hurt legal Americans and legal immigrants and helped some people who shouldn’t be in this country.”
Van Drew questioned whether USCIS has diverted its resources from processing other legal recourse applications by focusing on parole applicants.
Jaddou said the agency did not do so.
“Well, I disagree with you,” he said.
Last updated on December 4, 2024 at 3:46 p.m
