Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Mike Collins (R-GA) seek answers from the Biden Administration over its abuse of parole authority after a paroled alien allegedly murdered 22-year-old Laken Riley.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Friday, Roy and Collins request answers on the administration’s parole authority “which has been used to release over one million aliens into the United States” since Biden’s inauguration, writing that its policy “raises serious concerns regarding the rule of law, our national sovereignty, and the safety and wellbeing of the American people.”
The suspect in Riley’s murder, Jose Antonio Ibarra, is a Venezuelan national who entered the United States after crossing the southern border in September 2022. DHS paroled and released him into the United States as part of its broader “catch and release” program. Ibarra was arrested only months later in New York City for endangering a 5-year-old child, but due to that city’s sanctuary policies, Ibarra was released from jail rather than being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Laken Riley (Laken Riley/Facebook)
Roy and Collins argue that parole authority may only be used on a case-by-case basis, and that the blanket abuse by the Biden Administration – as part of its broader open borders agenda – is a direct contributor to the crime wave flooding the United States that resulted in Riley’s murder.
“Laken Riley had her life tragically cut short by an illegal migrant who was paroled into this country instead of being detained like the law requires,” Roy said.
He added:
The Biden administration is massively abusing parole to further the radical progressive Democrats’ open-border invasion. Congress not only has a duty to defund and reform these lawless policies, but we also owe it to the American people to get to the bottom of the extent of the abuse of parole by the Biden administration.
“The mass parole of illegal immigrants undermines national security, aids and abets the current invasion at our southern border, and endangers the lives of Americans,” Collins said. “If it weren’t for the Biden administration’s abuse of parole authority, Laken Riley would still be with us.”
Parole Inquiry Letter by Breitbart News on Scribd
Ibarra likely entered the U.S. under a controversial – and perhaps illegal – program the Biden Administration instituted in 2022 to allow broad parole for Venezuelans that quickly ballooned beyond its original scope.
As Roy and Collins write:
In January 2023, this program ultimately expanded into a large-scale categorical parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, allowing hundreds of thousands of migrants from these countries alone to enter the United States via parole monthly, despite the law clearly stating parole should be administered on a ‘case-by-case’ basis.
In addition to that program, the pair target another tool the Biden Administration is using to usher in the flood of migrants – a feature DHS added to its American taxpayer-funded CBP One smartphone application to allow illegal aliens to simply schedule the time at which they will cross the border at a port of entry to be granted parole.
They state:
However, only Congress has the authority to create new legal immigration categories or pathways. Despite the administration’s claim it is using parole to reduce illegal immigration, the CBP One application has become another tool to erode American sovereignty by scheduling illegal immigration and facilitating a nationwide catch-and-release program.
Roy and Collins cite data from DHS that contradicts the agency’s claims and suggests the app “may be allowing tens of thousands of inadmissible aliens to enter the country under the same general pretext of asylum despite not qualifying for asylum under U.S. immigration law.”
They write:
[B]etween January 12, 2023, and September 30, 2023, of the 58,772 appointments made by Mexican nationals through the CBP One application, 55,099, or 93% of individuals were paroled into the United States. Considering DHS itself claims that “only noncitizens who can be considered for a humanitarian exception may use CBP One,” this raises questions as to why Mexican nationals are receiving parole on such a broad basis. Indeed, Mexican nationals rarely meet the circumstances to qualify for asylum – in the first half of Fiscal Year 2023, immigration judges granted asylum to a mere 4% of Mexican nationals who filed for protection.
The congressmen’s letter asks Mayorkas on what grounds Ibarra was paroled into the United States, as well as what protocols DHS follows “to vet parolees as to whether they pose public safety threats, harbor affiliations to criminal gangs, or pose national security concerns before they are released into the interior.” It also asks if DHS will update those protocols after their apparent failure led to Riley’s murder.
Roy and Collins also probe Mayorkas regarding how many aliens have been granted parole and released into the United States under Biden for significant public benefit reasons and urgent humanitarian reasons, as well as the criminal histories, nationalities and other background on those paroled, including how DHS tracks them.
Their letter also asks specifically about Mexican nationals the administration has paroled into the United States.
They write that the Biden administration’s practice “is circumventing the law by unlawfully paroling thousands of inadmissible aliens into the country, which, as we tragically saw in the case of Ms. Riley, can pose devastating impacts on our communities.”
Mayorkas was impeached in February 2024 after the House found his intentional disregard for existing immigration laws rose to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, among other offenses.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
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