A recent analysis conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has unveiled the destinations of hundreds of thousands of migrants coming to the U.S. on flights facilitated by President Joe Biden’s administration. Since the start of the program in January 2023, approximately 326,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela have arrived in the Sunshine State of Florida thanks to the administration’s efforts.
DeSantis slams Biden's migrant flights into Florida as illegal and unconstitutional: "We're not a sanctuary state. We don't have sanctuary cities. We've took action to where you're not getting a driver's license. You're not getting ID cards." pic.twitter.com/Q47vLCu24t
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) April 3, 2024
CIS filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking to see detailed data about the airports where these migrants were being placed, but the lawyers representing Biden’s immigration agencies refused to disclose the information, claiming that disclosure of such information would create safety and national security “vulnerabilities.”
Although airport-specific data has not been released by the agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has previously disclosed that these planes landed in at least 43 different airports in the US throughout 2023. Florida is the top destination of flights brokered by the administration, followed by Texas, a border state already grappling with overwhelming numbers of migrants who are crossing into the US, adding to already strained local resources and infrastructures.
According to the CIS analysis, Houston welcomed 21,964 illegal migrants through this initiative through February, with nearly 13,000 migrants arriving in California at airports in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The program additionally sent almost 15,000 migrants to cities such as Boston, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Chicago. Todd Bensman’s analysis also noted that the New York Field Office reported encountering 33,408 inadmissible aliens with stated nationalities, including Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela at airports such as JFK and LaGuardia.
The program, known as CNHV, enables up to 30,000 migrants per month to apply for asylum through the CBP One app and be transported to the U.S. at taxpayer expense, provided they have a sponsor who passes a background check. These illegal migrants are permitted to live and work legally in the U.S. under “humanitarian parole” while being provided a two-year grace period to obtain legal status.
Originally intended to alleviate pressure on southern border crossings, the CNHV program has been met with harsh criticism from Republicans and border advocates. They argue that it incentivizes illegal immigration by providing migrants with a pathway to enter the U.S. without undergoing the standard asylum process at the southern border.
While the CNHV program was originally established with the intention of offloading the strain on southern border crossings, Republicans and border advocates argue that it encourages illegal immigration by providing a pipeline for migration into the US without having to pass through the southern border and the normal US asylum process.
Instead of addressing the root causes of migration, the program is seen as a temporary fix that fails to stop the mass flow of migrants at the Southern border nor address the underlying issues driving people to flee their home countries. While the Biden administration hoped to portray the program as a solution to the border crisis used to curb illegal immigration, the CNHV program has been accused of enabling the mass entry of illegal migrants into the country, financed directly by taxpayers.
