The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that it will resume travel authorization for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who apply to come to the United States with the help of a sponsor.
The program was suspended in July after an internal report found that more than 100,000 applicants for the program were supported by more than 3,200 US-based sponsors, defined in the report as “serial sponsors.” These programs have been red-flagged for potential fraud, and critics of the program have said that large numbers of migrants sponsored by only a few individuals can point to human trafficking.
This was reported by NBC News on Wednesday that DHS will restart the program earlier this week although he had not finished reviewing the potentially fraudulent applications. As of last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of DHS, still had about 30,000 people pending review. The Biden administration is eager to restart the program because it believes allowing migrants to apply legally has led to a sharp drop in illegal border crossings from Mexico to the United States, according to two U.S. officials.
A DHS spokesman said the reinstated program will include additional vetting procedures to “strengthen the integrity of the process.” These new procedures include greater scrutiny of sponsors’ financial records and criminal backgrounds, enhanced investigations to identify serial filing trends and a fingerprint requirement for all US-based supporters, the spokesperson said.
A DHS official also told NBC News that sponsors must show they can financially support the number of immigrants they sponsor, and that “serial documents that do not meet these qualifications or appear to exploit or abuse the process will not be approved.”
The official added that any sponsor who asks immigrants to pay for sponsorship will be referred to law enforcement for potential prosecution. An Associated Press article weeks after the program began in January 2023 raised concerns about potential sponsors advertising online that they were willing to sell their services as sponsors to migrants in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
A DHS spokeswoman said so far all migrants admitted to the U.S. under the program have been thoroughly screened and vetted, and DHS has not identified any issues of concern with the screening and vetting of program beneficiaries.
The internal report that led to the program’s suspension found thousands of instances of sponsorships using the same street addresses, internet protocol addresses or phone numbers. For example, almost 600 applications were flagged because they all used the same commercial warehouse address in Orlando, Florida. The authors also found reuse of the same Social Security numbers, including numbers belonging to dead people.
A spokesman said the investigation “found that very few supporters had fraud or criminal issues that required referral to law enforcement.”
“The internal review analyzed a number of criteria and trends to assess possible indicators of fraud or non-compliance with US-based sponsors,” the spokesperson said. “In most cases, these indicators ultimately have a reasonable explanation and are resolved. For example, one supporter made a typographical error while submitting his information online.