The Biden administration’s program of secretly flying illegal immigrants directly from Latin America to U.S. cities dumps over 90% in hubs of two Southern states governed by the president’s harshest border critics, according to government data.
Some 347,959 migrants allowed into the secretive system fly directly to airports in Florida and Texas, with Florida receiving the vast majority at 325,995, according to an analysis of U.S. Customs and Border Protection numbers by the Center for Immigration Studies.
It is unclear how many of the immigrants fly on to other U.S. cities, though the government has said there are over 40 final destinations.
“This early evidence suggests that a great many of these inadmissible alien passengers, probably a majority, initially land at international airports in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Florida,” said CIS, which reported that the program has let in 386,000 people since October 2022. “In fact, Florida turns out to be the top landing and U.S. customs processing zone for this direct-flights parole-and-release program, tallying at nearly 326,000 of the initial arrivals from inception through February.”
Investigator Todd Bensman said the program allows “aspiring illegal border crossers” from nine Latin American countries to buy an airline ticket to fly directly to the city of their choice, where they are processed and let go.
“Begun in October 2022 for Venezuelans and expanded in January 2023 to Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Colombians, the program approves flight travel authorizations for aspiring illegal border-crossers still in other countries to instead arrange commercial airline passage for themselves over the southern border and then receive temporary but easily renewable ‘humanitarian parole’ from CBP officers at the airport,” Bensman said in his new report. “One incentive to dissuade beneficiaries from illegal border crossings is that the parole program comes with eligibility for renewable work permits.”
