In order to expedite the process for Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Haitians who elect to be eligible for parole on humanitarian grounds, the US government announced a change in the selection process for their beneficiaries. According to a telephone press conference on Thursday, the program will begin processing around 1,000 candidates daily over the next few days.
The US announced in early 2023 that it would take in more than 30,000 migrants a month from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti, expanding a program it had been using to issue humanitarian permits to Venezuelans since October 2022. However, he also warned that he would immediately deport illegal immigrants from countries attempting to irregularly cross the southern border into his territory into Mexico. The Mexican authorities, for their part, agreed to take in up to 30,000 migrants deported from the US per month.
The new change to the program says that of the 1,000 slots available each day, about 500 will be “processed at random”. [aleatoria] in a lottery and anyone who waits can be chosen,” said Blas Núñez-Neto, undersecretary for border policy and immigration at the Ministry of Homeland Security.
The other half of the appointments will be “processed in the order in which the applications were received, also to ensure that those waiting can have confidence that their application will eventually be confirmed,” added Núñez-Neto.
The announcement is among the actions taken by the Joe Biden administration following the abolition of Title 42, which had no effect this Thursday.
The new change to the program says that of the 1,000 slots available each day, about 500 will be “processed at random”.
These changes are raising hopes for many Cubans, who have started the process since January and have not yet been approved, although the future of the program is pending a hearing scheduled for mid-next month following a request from several prosecutors and officials from 20 states in the country against the relevance of probation.
Berta, a Cuban who was stranded in Mexico last January when the US closed the border to Cuban nationals, was sponsored by some friends on May 9 and received confirmation emails from the Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) on May 11 ). However, the 38-year-old woman was unable to complete the process.
“I went through all the steps required by USCIS without any problems before sending myself to CBP One to apply for the travel authorization,” the Cuban told 14ymedio. “But after I managed to create my session in CBP One on the evening of May 11, I got stuck.”
“The application sends me the verification code and if I manage to enter it, I exit the system. If he allows me to complete the necessary steps, including taking a selfie and scanning my passport, I’ll send the information, but the application itself will bring me a sign saying the information is incorrect.”
Like Berta, in the last week some beneficiaries of the probation have expressed the malfunction of the application in the Facebook groups set up by Cubans to be informed about the probation. They all agree that they entered the data correctly and followed the required steps. It’s not the first time sponsors and beneficiaries have reported such a CBP One bug.
According to the latest statistics from the Department of Homeland Security, more than 120,000 immigrants arrived in the United States on humanitarian parole by the end of April.
Depending on nationality, more than 24,000 Cubans have been granted travel authorization, and of these, approximately 22,000 have entered the United States. More than 46,000 Venezuelans, 39,000 Haitians and 19,000 Nicaraguans were also admitted.
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