US Reopens Migrant Sponsorship Program with New Screening Process Aimed at Cutting Fraud

The Biden administration is reopening an updated version of a migrant sponsorship program that abruptly paused earlier this summer due to concerns about fraud, Department of Homeland Security officials said Thursday.

The initiative was launched in late 2022 and expanded in early 2023 to keep migrants away from the U.S.-Mexico border. It allows up to 30,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to fly to the U.S. each month, if U.S. sponsors apply to support them.

The program, coupled with Mexico’s move to take back citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who enter the U.S. illegally, led to a dramatic drop in illegal border crossings by migrants from those four countries. But the policy was frozen in July after officials raised concerns that some potential sponsors were submitting fraudulent applications.

After a weeks-long pause, the Department of Homeland Security is restarting the program with an enhanced screening process for those seeking to sponsor migrants under the policy. The administration will now require those seeking to sponsor migrants to submit fingerprints for the screening process. Officials also plan to more closely check potential sponsors’ financial and criminal records and increase scrutiny of repeat sponsors.

“Now that these updated procedures are in place, DHS will resume issuance of new Advance Travel Authorizations and will closely monitor how this new process plays out going forward,” Homeland Security spokesperson Naree Ketudat said in a statement.

Sponsors must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, or have some other legal immigration status. Concerns about fraud in the program have focused on potential sponsors, not migrants, who also undergo security screening before they can book travel to the U.S.

DHS officials said an initial investigation into potential fraud within the program found that most of the concerning cases had a “reasonable explanation,” including filing errors. But officials said the review did find some instances of fraud, including potential sponsors using fraudulent Social Security numbers. A small number of applicants have been referred to law enforcement for further investigation and possible prosecution, officials said.

Known as CHNV for the initials of the four nationalities eligible for the initiative, the policy is a pillar of the Biden administration’s strategy to reduce U.S.-Mexico border crossings, which have soared to record highs in recent years. More than half a million migrants have arrived in the U.S. under the policy so far, according to government data.

The administration has created several avenues for migrants to enter the U.S. legally, including through an app that distributes entry appointments for those waiting in Mexico, while increasing penalties for those who cross the southern border illegally. Most recently, President Biden effectively shut down access to the U.S. asylum system among legal border crossings, a move that officials have attributed to a near- 4 year low during illegal border crossings this summer.

The CHNV policy allows eligible Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to fly to the U.S. with U.S. sponsors. There, they can apply for temporary work permits under the immigration law, which allows presidents to welcome foreigners on humanitarian or public interest grounds.

The Biden administration has argued that the policy is justified on humanitarian grounds given the economic crises and political unrest in the four countries. It has also argued that the program serves a public interest objective by reducing illegal immigration by migrants from these countries by providing them with a legal alternative to come to the U.S.

Republican state officials have called the CHNV policy illegal and argued in a lawsuit that the program circumvents restrictions Congress has placed on legal immigration. But a federal judge in Texas earlier this year rejected the legal challenge, concluding that the GOP-led states had failed to show that they had been harmed by the program.