MIAMI — The head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Monday defended a parole process that allows up to 30,000 Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans a month to come to the United States, following a legal challenge from Florida’s governor and those of 19 other Republican-led states.
“It is remarkable to me that states will attack a solution to the problem about which they complain,” said Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of DHS, during a news conference Monday at the Little Haiti Cultural Center.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joined Texas and 18 other states in challenging the Biden administration’s two-year parole program. A federal judge has yet to hear the case, but the challenge has created panic in the communities that would benefit out of fear the court could halt the program.
Mayorkas said it was “incomprehensible” that the lawsuit was filed because the program “addresses the challenge that we have encountered at our southern border.”
He cited preliminary data the Department of Homeland Security released last week, which said that there had been a 97% decrease in encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border with Cubans, Nicaraguans Haitians, and Venezuelans without proper documentation compared with December.
Texas is leading the lawsuit. The state governments are arguing that the parole program is an overreach of the agency’s power and goes beyond the limits of how immigration agencies can use the parole program. They also say that the arrival of migrants through the parole program will strain state resources. Mayorkas, DHS, and the immigration agencies under its umbrella and their leadership have all been named as defendants.
The Biden administration announced the program Jan. 5 amid an increase in migration from Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti and Cuba. The administration hopes that the initiative will reduce dangerous journeys that migrants take to reach the U.S.-Mexico border by land and Florida by water.
Mayorkas rejected that the parole process would deplete state sources, because people coming through the initiative are receiving work authorization as part of their approval, allowing them to sustain themselves. He also said that the parole decisions were made on a case-by-case basis.
“We stand by the legality of the program,” he said.
Mayorkas also touched on the surge of migration to the Florida Keys, saying that too many tragic things had happened in the Atlantic Ocean during migrant voyages by sea. Just last week, Cuban media reported the sinking of a migrant boat near the city of Cardenas. Several people have been reported dead or missing.
Mayorkas met on Sunday with Florida U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Maria Elvira Salazar, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Carlos Gimenez. The news conference Monday followed a meeting with Haitian American politicians, Miami religious leaders, immigration lawyers and activists, and county leaders, including Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Mayorkas is the first Latino and immigrant to lead the agency. Monday’s visit is the third time that he’s visited Miami since he became head of DHS. He also visited in August 2021, when he announced sanctions for Cuban officials following the July 11 anti-government protests in the island nation. He had also previously visited South Florida in May of that year.
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