Biden Looks to use Parole-in-Place to Grant Backdoor Amnesty to More than a Million Illegal Aliens
April 29, 2024
Joe Chatham
Director of Government Relations
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.
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.
https://www.fairus.org/news/executive/biden-looks-use-parole-place-grant-backdoor-amnesty-more-million-illegal-aliens
