(The Center Square) – A wave of violent crime has befallen Americans nationwide connected to parole programs created by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to several reports.
A pattern has emerged of single men illegally entering the U.S. who are considered inadmissible under federal law. Instead of being processed for removal, Border Patrol agents released them with a “notice to appear” before an immigration judge several years into the future.
DHS Inspector General reports found the agents weren’t vetting everyone they apprehended and released and ICE agents weren’t detaining them, The Center Square reported. Months later, many of the released men were arrested for allegedly committing violent crimes, including thousands of miles away from the border.
Recent examples include Venezuelans who allegedly strangled to death a 12-year-old girl in Houston, a Salvadoran who allegedly raped and murdered a mother of five in Maryland, and an Ecuadorian who allegedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old in New York City.
“These tragedies could have been avoided if the Biden administration would simply enforce the laws they swore to uphold,” U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., said. “It’s truly that simple. Americans no longer feel safe in their own communities and neighborhoods. It does not have to be this way. Our Committee will continue to do everything possible to ensure justice for these victims, and accountability for the public officials ultimately responsible for these tragedies.”
After the alleged perpetrators are arrested, local law enforcement officials discovered they were released by Border Patrol agents, weren’t properly vetted, and or came in through new parole programs Mayorkas created. House Republicans identified them as illegal and used them as evidence to impeach Mayorkas in February. Republican attorneys general have sued trying to stop them, arguing they are illegal.
Within months of being released, the alleged perpetrators were arrested and charged with having committed violent crimes, The Center Square, law enforcement officials and news organizations have reported. Their entries have been traced back to the Central American Minors Parole Program (implemented in April 2022) and parole programs created specifically for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV, implemented between October 2022 and January 2023), and for Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Columbians through a so-called family unification process (implemented in July 2023).
DHS used more than 50 airports worldwide “to help process into the country more than 400,000 inadmissible aliens through the administration’s unlawful … CHNV mass-parole program,” the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security said. In April 2024, the committee reported that since mid-October 2023, “there were 1.6 million inadmissible aliens awaiting travel authorizations through the CHNV program.”
DHS documents the committee obtained state that none admitted through CHNV have a legal basis to enter the country: “All individuals paroled into the United States are, by definition, inadmissible, including those paroled under the CHNV Processes.”
Green said the mass parole programs “continue to make a mockery of our laws. The simple fact is that [President Joe] Biden and Mayorkas want to import more inadmissible aliens into the United States because they see political benefit in doing so, not to protect those legitimately persecuted in their home countries.”
Former President Donald Trump first warned that criminals would be released from prisons in other countries, illegally enter the U.S. and harm Americans.
At a border event in Texas three years ago, Trump said he made deals with the leaders of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to take back their own citizens who were violent criminals that the U.S. processed for removal. This agreement ended under the Biden administration. Trump warned these countries would open their prisons “and prisoners, murderers, human traffickers … drug dealers” would illegally enter the U.S.
Among them are members of a violent Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua, who have embedded themselves in Houston, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McGraw told a state legislative committee.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, called on the Biden administration to designate the cartel as a Transnational Criminal Organization. Members are known for committing murder, orchestrating bribery and money laundering schemes, drug and arms trafficking, and kidnappings for ransom money.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been arresting Tren de Aragua gang members nationwide, including recently in New York City and Chicago, The Center Square reported. From fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2023, ICE agents also arrested a record 387,000 criminal noncitizens; the majority were citizens of Mexico, Nicaragua, Columbia and Venezuela, The Center Square reported.
Despite House Republicans demanding answers nearly two years ago from Mayorkas “about Venezuela releasing violent prisoners early and pushing them to join caravans heading towards our southern border,” The Center Square reported, how many are illegally in the U.S. are unknown.
