On Friday, the Trump administration announced it was terminating a program allowing vetted migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to live and work in the United States.
The program, implemented by the Biden administration to reduce illegal border crossings, allowed migrants from these countries to legally live and work in the country as long as they had private sponsors in the United States and passed security checks.
The process, as explained by the Cato Institute’s David Bier in a briefing paper, makes clear that this wasn’t as simple as it sounds.
Sponsors must pass security checks as well, have the financial means of supporting the program participant and have a willingness to help find the participant work and housing if necessary.
“If the sponsor is approved, the parolee submits biographic information to USCIS and then requests travel authorization from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), another DHS agency,” he wrote. “After flying to the United States, CBP authorizes entries and status valid for up to two years, though the government can extend this period.”
Over the years, half a million people were able to enter the United States, live and work as they sought other, more permanent avenues for staying here.
The program has been credited for helping reduce the border crisis the country faced during the Biden administration. It turns out that giving people a legal pathway to come to the United States reduces the number of people coming here through uncontrolled and illegal means. Who knew?
Unfortunately, the Biden administration declined to extend the two year legal status for participants in the program just before the election and Trump is now following up by terminating the program and telling them to leave the country. Trump has also removed temporary protected status from Haitians and Venezuelans, opening up many to deportation.
Of course none of this is a surprise.
It was the Trump campaign after all that spread disgraceful lies about Haitian migrants stealing and eating pets as a way of stirring up populist passions against migrants. And it’s been the MAGA right that has demonized Venezuelan migrants because a small proportion of people who have come here are criminals who should definitely be removed. Most Venezuelan migrants are just fleeing socialist tyranny and in search of a better life. Ditto the migrants from Cuba and Nicaragua.
Unfortunately, with the zero sum thinking of Trump and MAGA conservatives about immigration and the economy, such people are viewed as mere drains on finite resources rather than as people who can be integrated into the American experiment.
The key to reducing illegal border crossings is to give people legal pathways to come here. Trump has yet to understand this.