Amnesties All the Way Down By Mark Krikorian
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/amnesties-all-the-way-down/
The amnesty the White House announced today is simply the latest — and maybe not even the largest — of its many unilateral decrees legalizing and/or letting into the country individuals who have no right to be in the United States. Unless Congress is willing to completely cede its power over immigration, as it has over war-making, it will at some point need to radically restrict a president’s discretion, in detail and without waivers or wiggle room.
This latest executive diktat from the defenders of democracy would give work permits and Social Security numbers to an estimated half a million illegal-alien spouses of U.S. citizens, plus 50,000 illegal-aliens kids of those spouses. It’s called “parole in place,” which was totally made up in 2020, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi snuck it past the asleep-at-the-switch Republican Senate for the spouses of military personnel only.
Immigration parole is supposed to be a narrow exception to immigration limits, temporarily allowing in what is supposed to be a handful of inadmissible aliens for things like emergency medical treatment or court testimony, after which they’re supposed to be escorted back to the border. This administration has already used it to admit more than a million foreigners who don’t qualify for legal entry.
The parole-in-place confection paroles someone retroactively, thus legalizing a border-jumper’s infiltration into the U.S. It confers significant benefits: beyond a work permit and SSN, it also puts beneficiaries on the path to welfare eligibility, a green card, and eventual citizenship.
As my colleague Andrew Arthur points out, even if the program survives court challenge, it incentivizes large-scale fraud and will further lengthen the wait for foreign spouses of U.S. citizens who are waiting for authorization to enter the U.S. legally.
The DHS fact sheet justifies this illegal program by pointing to all the other illegal programs it has established to allow in illegal aliens. Most notable among these is the so-called Advance Travel Authorization program for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who don’t qualify for legal entry (also called the CHNV program). Another colleague of mine, Todd Bensman, has been all over DHS like a pit bull on a poodle to get the details of this program that allows nationals of these four countries to skip the border altogether and just fly straight into the interior and be paroled in. CIS had to sue to get details, the most recent batch of which shows that nearly half a million people from these four nationalities have been let in through May. More amazingly, they came here from 77 different countries — not just the four in question but also from most nations of the developed world. If these downtrodden Cubans, Haitians, et al. were already living in Switzerland or Japan or Aruba, what’s the justification for a “humanitarian” program to bring these people, who don’t qualify for legal entry, here?
Let’s not forget the CBP One app, by which inadmissible foreigners can schedule their illegal entry at established crossing points on the Mexican border. Or the “Deferred Enforced Departure” work-permit amnesty for Palestinian illegals. Or the administration’s ongoing expansion of “Temporary” Protected Status (TPS) to newer and newer cohorts of illegal aliens.
The routine use of illegal actions to legalize and/or admit illegal aliens really started with DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which recently marked its twelfth anniversary. As Mickey Kaus recently noted, “we still don’t have a decision on whether the program was legal or not? Why *wouldn’t* a President take further iffy executive actions, knowing the system’s so broken that judgment never comes?”
Reining in this abuse needs to be at the top of the list for any future Republican Congress and administration. Parole either needs to be abolished altogether or explicitly circumscribed and numerically limited. The issuance of a work permit to those who don’t already have a lawful visa status that permits it must be banned. TPS must be abolished.
The alternative is more of what we’ve seen over the past three and a half years — presidents amnestying or letting in anyone they feel like, regardless of immigration limits set by Congress.
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