Citing “fraud” and “security” concerns, the Trump administration has halted all immigration applications from immigrants from Latin America and Ukraine who were allowed to enter the US under some Biden-era programs, according to two US officials and an internal memo obtained by CBS.
According to the directive, the freeze on applications will remain in effect indefinitely while government officials work to improve review procedures to detect potential cases of fraud and mitigate concerns about national security and public safety.
The move, which has not been previously reported, creates uncertainty over the status of many immigrants who are in the process of applying for various immigration benefits that would allow them to remain in the US legally and, in some cases, permanently.
While the exact number of immigrants affected is unknown, the suspension of applications applies to several programs of the Biden administration that allow hundreds of thousands of foreigners to come to the US legally through an immigration law known as parole.
This law authorizes the US government to quickly admit aliens on humanitarian or public interest grounds.
The Biden administration had used the parole stamp/document on an unprecedented scale to encourage migrants to enroll in legal immigration channels rather than cross the southern border illegally.
The Trump administration moved swiftly to suspend these efforts, claiming that he had abused his parole authority.
The Trump administration had previously halted new entries under Biden-era parole policies. But in a letter dated February 14, Andrew Davidson, a senior official at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, ordered an agency-wide “administrative pause” on all “pending requests for relief” made by immigrants who were allowed to enter the US under three Biden administration programs.
These programs include a policy called Uniting for Ukraine, which was created to offer a safe haven to those fleeing the Ukrainian war.
Some 240,000 Ukrainians with American sponsors arrived in the US under this process before President Trump took office.
Another affected program, known as CHNV, allowed 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans sponsored by American citizens to enter the US.
The third affected program consists of processes that allow some Colombians, Ecuadorians, Central Americans, Haitians, and Cubans with American relatives to come to the United States and wait for family-based green cards.
Because those allowed to enter the US under these programs are granted only temporary work permits and deportation protections that typically last two years, many apply for other immigration benefits, lawyers and experts said.
These benefits include a program known as Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from crisis-affected countries such as Haiti, Ukraine, and Venezuela; asylum, which allows those fleeing persecution to obtain a permanent safe haven in the US; green cards or permanent American residency.
Due to a Cold War-era law, Cubans who have been “paroled” to the US can apply for green cards.