Migrants in 'urgent humanitarian' need to be sent to US from Bahamas, other vacation hot spots

A program by the Biden administration to offer “humane” commercial flights to migrants directly to dozens of American airports has seen at-risk migrants fly to the US from some of the world's wealthiest countries.

According to data obtained by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), immigrants are being brought in from rich European countries like France and Germany and vacation hot spots like the Bahamas and Jamaica under the Biden administration's CHNV program.

The CHNV program, which allows migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to fly commercially directly to dozens of U.S. airports, launched in 2022 and was created to grant sanctuary to citizens of those countries and their family members in the U.S. for “urgent humanitarian” reasons. “

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The program has brought more than 460,000 immigrants to the U.S., according to the CIS report, with immigrants released on temporary humanitarian parole for renewable two-year terms and given work permits. Migrants are also assumed to be using that time to apply for asylum, although the CIS report notes that they are not required to submit an asylum application.

But the list of departure countries used to claim that migrants are in any kind of immediate danger casts doubt. In addition to Germany and France, immigrants came to the United States from Australia, Iceland, Fiji, Greece, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Other popular vacation hot spots include the Caribbean, Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia. St. Kitts, Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

In all, migrants were sent to undisclosed US airports from 77 countries, a list that also included Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

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“I would say this data is evidence that the parole program is not being used to help aliens escape safely, but rather, as a secondary immigration measure that is not authorized by Congress,” said Elizabeth Jacobs, director of regulatory affairs. Center for Immigration Studies research. “The Biden administration may be paroling aliens who have already been 'firmly resettled' in safe and orderly countries but are nonetheless benefiting under the guise of urgent humanitarian or significant philanthropic reasons.”

Still, the administration has defended the program as a humanitarian success and argued that there is a “significant public benefit” from the program, noting that the flights make migrants less likely to attempt southern border crossings.

But CIS notes that some departure countries have questioned whether a migrant would have appeared at the US border at all without the program, arguing instead that migrants have already resettled in other, safer countries but later chose to go to the US.

“This data suggests that these people are strongly resettled and if they need to seek protection, they can seek it in the country where they are living,” Andrew Arthur, a CIS fellow and former immigration judge, said of the data. “If they're coming from anywhere other than Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, they're just doing business from the third country they're coming from. It literally has nothing to do with asylum claims or anything else.”

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The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

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