FAIR Take | April 2024
While the Biden Administration faces intense backlash for its self-created border crisis, it is doubling down and considering a mass amnesty for those on U.S. soil. This time, the administration is reportedly zeroing in on the illegal alien spouses of U.S. citizens. The tool of choice is rumored to be another unlawful use of parole termed “parole-in-place,” an invented concept that has little to no statutory basis. Roughly 1.1 million aliens may be covered under the latest proposal.
Parole-in-place is yet another abuse of the limited parole authority provided under Section 212(d)(5) of the INA. That section authorizes the government to grant parole (i.e. allow entry) to aliens who otherwise are inadmissible for temporary periods of time, on a case-by-case basis, for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.
Despite being intended for use in extraordinary circumstances – such as testifying in a trial or obtaining emergency medical care – the Biden Administration has distorted the statute beyond recognition. First, the administration used parole to affect the mass release of aliens apprehended at the border. Then the administration used parole to fly in hundreds of thousands of inadmissible aliens and allow them to remain indefinitely. Now, the Biden administration is using parole-in-place to provide relief to aliens already inside the country.
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Parole-in-place first surfaced in a 1998 memorandum under the Clinton Administration, which incredibly concludes that that since the law provides that aliens present in the U.S. without having been admitted or paroled are now considered “applicants for admission” they may be granted parole the same as arriving aliens. In 2013, the Obama Administration released additional guidance aiming to offer parole-in-place to spouses, children and parents of U.S. Armed Services members. Then, rather than curtailing this abuse of the statute, Congress included it in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, directing the DHS Secretary to consider granting parole-in-place to military families.
For illegal aliens who are married to U.S. citizens, receiving parole-in-place is tantamount to receiving amnesty because it allows you to obtain a green card. Under federal law, an alien who illegally enters the U.S. and then marries a citizen is generally not eligible for a green card, while an alien who legally enters is eligible. However, for purposes of obtaining a green card, the law treats an alien who is paroled into the U.S. the same as someone who was legally admitted. Thus, granting parole-in-place to illegal alien spouses of U.S. citizens clears the way for a green card and citizenship.
If the Biden administration decides to grant parole-in-place to illegal alien spouses of U.S. citizens, it would result in an amnesty for more than a million aliens. And, the program may grow. According to reports, the Biden administration may consider designating additional populations to receive parole-in-place. A statement from the White House declined to confirm specifics about the plan, but said: “The administration remains committed to ensuring those who are eligible for relief can receive it quickly and to building an immigration system that is fairer and more humane.”
The results of such a sweeping use of parole-in-place would be disastrous. First, it would immediately encourage more illegal immigration, not to mention marriage fraud. It would also, add to USCIS’s enormous workload, make the wait for other green card applicants longer, and be extraordinarily unfair to would-be immigrants going through the legal process.
Not surprisingly, the proposal is expected to garner significant pushback and legal challenges. According to Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, “The Biden administration keeps putting illegal aliens ahead of American citizens, and this decision would be just another flagrant violation of immigration law.”
The reported plan to use parole-in-place underscores the need for legislation, not only to secure our borders, but also to reform the laws so that Biden, Mayorkas, and future open-border leaders cannot abuse the power of parole. To learn more about reforms to the parole statute included in H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, visit FAIR’s activist toolkit here.
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