Two North Carolina airports are among those the Biden administration has been using to relocate illegal immigrants within the homeland. According to documents obtained by the House Committee on Homeland Security, Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) and Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) are among the over 50 airports utilized to redistribute hundreds of thousands of “inadmissible aliens” through the Biden Administration’s Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) mass-parole program.
The Committee subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the information, revealing that more than 400,000 inadmissible aliens came through the CHNV program, officially launched in January 2023.
Under the program, illegal immigrants from CHNV who obtain a US sponsor, pass a background check, and demonstrate that parole is warranted based on significant public benefit or urgent humanitarian reasons, are allowed to fly into US ports of entry, where they will receive work permits and authorization to remain in the country for two years.
The Committee also noted that DHS expanded the use of US Customs and Border Protection’s ‘CBP One’ app beyond its intended commercial use, now allowing illegal immigrants who participate in the CHNV parole program to schedule appointments through the application.
The documents obtained by the Committee cover the period from January to August 2023 and account for about 200,000 of the aliens. Data shows two of them went through RDU during that timeframe, and 103 went through CLT.
Eighty percent (161,562) arrived in Florida in four cities: Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, and Tampa. The top five cities migrants flew into are:
·1. Miami, FL – 91,821
·2. Ft. Lauderdale, FL – 60,461
·3. New York City, NY – 14,827
·4. Houston, TX – 7,923
·5. Orlando, FL – 6,043
The remaining cities in the top fifteen are Los Angeles, CA; Tampa, FL; Dallas, TX; San Francisco, CA; Atlanta, GA; Newark, NJ; Washington, D.C.; Chicago, IL; Las Vegas, NV; and Austin, TX.
The Committee says the documents also show that as of mid-October 2023, there were in excess of 1.6 million inadmissible aliens awaiting travel authorizations through the CHNV program. They said DHS further admits 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.”
One item of note: In March 2024, a Haitian national who entered the country through the CHNV program was arrested for the aggravated rape of a 15-year-old girl in Rockland, Massachusetts.
On February 13, the Republican-led United States House of Representatives voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for “high crimes and misdemeanors” due to repeated failures to secure the nation’s southern border. However, on April 17, the Senate rejected the impeachment articles after 51 Democrats voted to dismiss the charges brought by the House, deeming them unconstitutional.
“Secretary Mayorkas’ CHNV parole program is an unlawful sleight of hand used to hide the worsening border crisis from the American people,” House Committee chairman Mark Green, R-TN, said in the press release. “Implementing a program that allows otherwise inadmissible aliens to fly directly into the U.S. — not for significant public benefit or urgent humanitarian reasons as the Immigration and Nationality Act mandates —has been proven an impeachable offense. Following our subpoena and the House’s impeachment vote —especially in light of the Senate’s complete failure to fulfill its duty to hold a trial — the Committee will not rest until this administration is finally held accountable for its open-borders agenda and its devastating impact on our homeland security.”
A June 2023 cost study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) shows that 488,000 illegal immigrants live in the Tar Heel State, along with their 169,000 US-born children. Other estimates put that figure in doubt as being too low.
The costs to support such a substantial population of illegal immigrants are staggering. According to FAIR, in 2023, illegal immigration cost North Carolina taxpayers $3.14 billion or $779 per household annually.
When it comes to safety, North Carolinians are also paying the price — some with their lives, with fentanyl and other drug overdoses, and increased violent crime.
According to ICE data obtained by Charlotte’s WBTV news, in 2019 nearly 500 illegal immigrants were released from jails across the state despite administrative detainers filed against them by ICE. Those released included suspects initially charged with sex offenses, kidnapping, arson, and homicide.
ICE often uses a detainer to keep undocumented immigrants in jail because removal from the country is a civil action and not a criminal matter.
ICE has repeatedly asked local jurisdictions to reconsider non-cooperation policies enacted in recent years because “those policies put politics before public safety and release criminals back into communities where they are free to reoffend,” including six of twelve criminal illegal immigrants arrested by ICE in September 2020, who had active ICE detainers.
House Bill 10, Require Sheriffs to Cooperate with ICE, which requires sheriffs to contact ICE if they cannot confirm the citizenship status of someone in their custody accused of serious felonies and violent crimes, was resuscitated in the North Carolina General Assembly’s Short Session after it stalled out in March 2023 in the Senate Rules Committee.
The Senate Committee on Rules and Operations approved H.B. 10 first thing Wednesday morning following the Senate Judiciary Committee’s passage of the proposal on Tuesday.
The Senate passed legislation Thursday mandating all North Carolina sheriffs cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that issues detainers to remove noncitizens who have been arrested for felonies or violent misdemeanor criminal activity. The bill passed 28-16 along party lines.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated.