MEDIA ADVISORY: Chairmen Brecheen, Guest Announce Hearing on Rolling Back Biden’s Unlawful Mass-Parole Catastrophe

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As the Trump administration works to roll back the Biden-Harris administration's unlawful abuse of parole for inadmissible aliens, Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability, and Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS), chairman of the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, announced a joint hearing for next Tuesday, April 8, to examine the aftermath of these mass-parole schemes, which led to the release of more than 1.5 million inadmissible aliens en masse into the interior in just four years, many of them receiving little to no vetting.

The Immigration and Nationality Act only allows for parole to be granted "on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit." Last week, Chairmen Brecheen and Guest joined House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) on a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, renewing unsatisfied requests made to the Biden administration for information on the mass-parole programs. Parolees have gone on to commit heinous crimes in American communities, and represent a significant burden on limited state and local resources.

"We are grateful the Trump administration is working tirelessly to end the Biden-Harris administration's unlawful abuse of parole for inadmissible aliens, but much work lies ahead to address any threats to our public safety and national security that still remain," Chairmen Brecheen and Guest said. "Under the previous administration's open-borders policies, more than 1.5 million inadmissible aliens were mass-paroled, with insufficient vetting, into communities across the country through the fraud-ridden Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) program and the cartel-abused CBP One app.

"Following Joe Biden's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden-Harris administration also failed to properly vet 80,000 Afghan nationals who were paroled into our country through Operation Allies Welcome--resulting in a terror threat on U.S. soil. To make matters worse, Secretary Mayorkas repeatedly failed to provide transparency to allow Congress to conduct vital oversight of these programs. With a president in office who is committed to restoring law and order, we must examine the path forward to ensure the safety of our communities and the integrity of the rule of law. We look forward to hearing from our witnesses on the impacts of these programs, how the Trump administration can continue securing the homeland in their wake, and how to return parole to its original purpose."

DETAILS:

What: A joint hearing by the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability and the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement entitled, "Case by Case: Returning Parole to Its Proper Purpose"

When: Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at 2:00 PM ET

Where: 310 Cannon House Office Building

WITNESSES:

Ken Cuccinelli
Senior Fellow, Center for Renewing America

Steven Camarota
Director of Research, Center for Immigration Studies

David J. Bier
Director, Immigration Studies, CATO Institute

Charles Marino
Former Senior Law Enforcement Advisor to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security

Witness testimony will be added here. The hearing will be livestreamed on YouTube and will be open to the public and press. Press must be congressionally credentialed and should RSVP in advance.

BACKGROUND:

The Trump administration has formally ended the use of the CHNV program and retooled the CBP One app to aid in self-deportation.

Last year , even the Biden-Harris administration paused travel authorizations for CHNV parolees due to massive fraud discovered among those applying to sponsor inadmissible aliens seeking entry. According to Fox News, "The internal report found that forms from those applying for the program included social security numbers, addresses, and phone numbers being used hundreds of times in some cases. … It also found that 24 of the 1,000 most used numbers belonged to a dead person. Meanwhile, 100 physical addresses were used between 124 and 739 times on over 19,000 forms." The administration still chose to resume the program last August.

In April 2024, the Committee released documents obtained by subpoenaing DHS that identified over 50 airport locations, including the nation's capital, where inadmissible aliens have been flown into the country and processed by DHS for release. Chairman Green subpoenaed DHS on August 22, 2023 and sent a follow-up letter to then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in September 2023, demanding compliance with the Committee's requests for critical data and information regarding the CHNV parole program. According to produced documents, DHS admitted that none of these individuals have a legal basis to enter the country before being paroled through the program, stating, "All individuals paroled into the United States are, by definition, inadmissible, including those paroled under the CHNV Processes."

In August 2023, the Washington Examiner confirmed that Mexican cartels were abusing the CBP One app by selling the use of a virtual private network (VPN) to hide the location of aliens, often advertised on social media. In October 2023, following months of stonewalling, DHS finally responded to multiple requests by the Committee regarding the app's expanded use, revealing that 95.8 percent of all inadmissible aliens who scheduled appointments through the app during that time were ultimately issued a "Notice to Appear" and released into the United States on parole.

In addition to CHNV and CBP One app oversight, Chairman Green subpoenaed then-DHS Secretary Mayorkas in October 2023 for denying Congress information responsive to the Committee's May 2023 request related to the vetting and screening of Afghan evacuees entering the United States since 2021. After the Biden administration's catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the country became a breeding ground for foreign terrorist organizations under Taliban rule.

In October 2024, Fox News reported that Biden-Harris administration officials misrepresented the level of vetting conducted on Afghan national Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi. Released into the United States in September 2021 following the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, Tawhedi was arrested last year for plotting an Election Day terrorist attack in Oklahoma.

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