Unauthorized Work Program for Tens of Thousands of Mexicans Finally Draws Congressional Curiosity
By Todd Bensman on March 5, 2024
AUSTIN, Texas — Revelations that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has discretely granted “humanitarian parole” entries into the United States and two-year work permits to more than 85,000 Mexican nationals who used the “CBP One” mobile phone app have raised no official Washington curiosity since a Center for Immigration Studies Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in November revealed the unannounced activity.
The United States, after all, has never considered Mexico so dangerous that it would grant humanitarian protection to such broad swaths of its citizenry, and Mexicans rarely claim asylum because immigration judges reject them about 96 percent of the time. Neither Congress nor the Biden administration has approved any new work programs for Mexicans, or expanded previous ones.
Yet DHS granted the urgent humanitarian parole and work authorization benefit to 85,000 Mexicans out of the 420,000 noncitizens from nearly 100 nations who have applied for appointments using the CBP One app from May 1, 2021, through December 2023 — more than granted to any other single nationality, according to updated CIS lawsuit data first described in this October 24 CIS report.
After months of silence from Capitol Hill about this highly unusual program for Mexicans, two congressmen, contemplating the alleged murder of Athens, Ga., nursing student Laken Riley by a Venezuelan reportedly granted the parole benefit recently extended their inquiry to the huge number of Mexicans allowed to use the CBP One mobile phone app. That would qualify them as the first federal lawmakers to ask about the unusual distribution of the benefit to Mexicans.
https://cis.org/Bensman/Unauthorized-Work-Program-Tens-Thousands-Mexicans-Finally-Draws-Congressional-Curiosity
