A Compelling Defense of Immigration Parole Programs

My Cato Institute colleague David Bier presented it in testimony before a congressional committee.

Venezuelans fleeing the socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro. (NA)

 

In recent testimony before the House Subcommittees on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability and Border Security and Enforcement, of the Committee on Homeland Security, my Cato Institute colleague David Bier presented a strong defense of the legality, justice, and effectiveness of immigration "parole programs," which allow broad categories of migrants fleeing war and oppression to enter the US legally. As he describes, there is a long history of such programs, most recently those created by President Biden for migrants from Ukraine fleeing Russian invasion (the Uniting for Ukraine program), and four Latin American nations beset by violence and socialist tyranny (the CHNV program).

David is one of the nation's leading immigration policy experts, and his testimony is must-reading for anyone interested in this issue. Here is a summary:

One legal way for immigrants to enter and participate in US society is parole, an immigration category first created by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Over the decades since then, millions of individuals have entered this country as parolees. Although parole is a temporary status, it allows immigrants to adjust to lawful permanent residence if they are eligible through another pathway, which many thousands of parolees have done. Many former parolees are now Americans and continue to contribute to their new home. It is an essential and important feature of America's legal immigration system.

Congress should:

• protect current parolees from the president's mass deportation efforts;
• reinstitute the parole processes suspended by the president; and
• expand those processes to give more people a viable legal option to immigrate legally to the United States.

David explains the advantages of these programs, and ably addresses a variety of legal and policy objections.

I have defended the legality of CHNV in a Supreme Court amicus brief, and in an earlier amicus brief in Texas v. Department of Homeland Security, a lawsuit filed by twenty GOP-controlled states (that case was eventually dismissed by a conservative Trump-appointed federal judge for lack of standing). I also defended it in a 2023 article in The Hill, and criticized Trump's attempts to revoke it in a March 2025 post.

See also my various writings on the success of Uniting for Ukraine and what we can learn from it.

Comments

[David Nieporent]

I guess one has to try, but I've got to imagine that going to this Congress and testifying in favor of more liberal immigration rules is about like traveling to Kabul to explain to the Taliban why they need to import more alcohol.

[MollyGodiva]

What is wrong with more liberal immigration rules?

[David Nieporent]

Nothing.

[Riva]

I'm sure that analogy somehow makes sense in your crazy broken little mind, but the next time the voices in your head encourage you to post something, just ignore them. They're not real. You're welcome.

[bernard11]

It makes perfect sense.

You're an idiot, or a badly programmed bot.

[Riva]

Glad to see you can parrot asshole’s sick insults. But how far could the Reich have gotten if it didn’t have a bunch of f’ing morons to ape their vile rhetoric? And is also weirdly in keeping with a-hole’s reference to Islamo-fascists. Just so you know, it as fundamental stupid and inappropriate for asshole to have compared an American representative body to the Taliban as it was alcohol to human beings. But also in keeping with the repulsive dehumanization you creeps seem to enjoy I guess. Is someone paying you to be stupid sick a-holes or do you do it for the sheer pleasure?

[David Nieporent]

Bot not programmed to understand analogies. Pro tip: analogies compare the relationship between two things to the relationship between two other things. They don't compare the things to each other.

But, yes, I was probably being a bit unfair to the Taliban. They're not as insane and fundamentalist as MAGA..

[Riva]

Way to double down on stupid. As for embrace of the really quite sick and perverse tactic of labeling those you disagree with as "its," I did some more looking. Strange but it's pretty much universally reviled. In fact, it's hard to imagine a more contemptible rhetorical tactic. And to attack MAGA when POS like you favor the rhetorically style of nazis. They call that projection.

[Taco8647]

1. You lack fundamental reading comprehension and rhetorical analysis skills. Point in favor of human control.
2. You consistently sprayshit nazi accusations without the slightest connection to the post to which your programming compels you to reply. Highly suspect: your side is sending masked agents to remove brown people to deportation camps without due process (very, very nazi of you). Point in favor of bot.

I think the NSDAP-GOP should fire this prototype. Grok ain’t cutting it.

[Riva]

There were many possible appropriate responses to my comment. Adopting (rather ineptly I add) the repulsive rhetorical style of the first asshole in this chain is not among them.

[Riva]

And just one more follow up, so obvious it's probably not necessary, but human beings are not "things" you repugnant asshole.

[ReaderY]

It’s taken me awhile to realize that Riva is not atypical in lacking enough attention span to be capable of basic reading comprehension. Analogies require first getting the entire situation in your head- all of A, B, C, and D - in order to be able to comprehend something as complicated as the idea that A is to B as C is to D.

But people like Riva simply aren’t capable of doing that. They don’t have a long enough attention span to be capable of getting the entire situation in their head. They see A, and then they immediately react. They aren’t able to hold their mind steady, free of reaction, even long enough to get to B, let alone the rest of it.

The internet and the reaction-seeking algorithms so profitable to social media companies have tended to have this effect.

It’s not necessarily Riva’s personal fault that he can’t do this, just like it’s not his personal fault that he probably can’t calculate a square root (and likely not even a sum) in his head or do other things people used to routinely be able to do before calculators eliminated the need for the relevant skill set.

In the case of attention span, technology has tended to eliminate the skill set just as it has mostly eliminated skills like basic math, spelling, and navigating. But this is a skill set we still routinely need.

[Riva]

Sorry too long for me carefully. But the standard insults appear to be an improvement over asshole's preferred style.

[Sarcastr0]

So fragile. So easily pricked.

Riva is just to delicate for this cruel world.

But so long as I got you, which laws do you feel Biden broke?

[Riva]

Again, some improvement over asshole at least, little communist girl that never smiled. (and I concede a typo omitting "to read" before "carefully" but frankly don't really care)

As for your comment on Biden, wrong chain sport.

[Riva]

Just thought, maybe there are some grammar nazis that can jump on that typo? Asshole may find some more friends to share ideas.

[Taco8647]

I think I’m catching on.

It’s kinda like Lenny with ChatGPT instead of George.

[Taco8647]

Please send the same message to your leader - Q@4chan or 8chan or whitehouse dot gov.

Then, please, slither yourself back through whatever aperture leads to your colon-esque source of ideas, existence, et cetera.

[Armchair]

It would be an easier sell if the current immigration laws hadn't been broken, ignored, and twisted so much.

[Sarcastr0]

Which laws?

[Riva]

The laws Biden intentionally subverted? Along with his oath of office of course. I guess he could have forgotten he was president. He tended to do that. Although it seemed open borders was a goal shared by many democrats.

[Sarcastr0]

Which laws?

[Riva]

For starters, Biden's mass parole authority abuse in contravention of 8 U.S.C. § 1182(d)(5)(A) and Biden's "Catch and Release" policies in contravention 8 U.S.C. § 1226. And of course, he violated his fundamental constitutional duties to faithfully execute the laws and keep our borders secure.

[Sarcastr0]

I prompted ChatGPT to respond 'The specific us code sections has Biden intentionally subverted for illegal aliens'
Here is the response:

"Parole authority: Some allege that the administration has misused its parole authority under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(d)(5)(A) to release large numbers of migrants into the country, including individuals with criminal affiliations, rather than detaining them while their cases are pending.

Relaxed enforcement priorities: Critics argue that the administration's shift towards prioritizing certain categories of immigrants for detention and removal, while deprioritizing others, has led to a decrease in overall immigration enforcement and effectively undermined laws like 8 U.S.C. § 1325 (Improper entry by alien)."

Oh Riva, you're such a bot.

[Taco8647]

Some guy wakes up in the morning, fires up the old VerisimilitudeBot2.9beta5, sets it to “J’Accuse! (Nazi),” points it to VC, checks out his porn torrent for the latest gender-variant fetish, throws on the red hat, and starts the day with a bang.

What a life.

[Riva]

No need even to respond because your stupidity speaks for itself. Speaks volumes in fact. But I could point out that the Dreyfus affair smacked of antisemitism, if you wanted to relate maters to the vile dehumanizing rhetoric employed by certain europeans in the 30s and and 40s which you shitheads seem to find inspirational. Although the Dreyfus itself affair had actually nothing to do with Nazis. But that's actually too many facts for an imbecile like you to digest. Now F off.

[Riva]

Rather oblivious, little communist girl that never smiled. You admittedly use ChatGPT write your comment and then mindlessly parrot the vile repulsive insults of the asshole who began this comment section. You asked a question shithead, my mistake for taking the time to respond.

[Sarcastr0]

You didn't provide an actual answer, you provided AI slop.

[Riva]

Thought I was perfectly clear but you don’t seem to understand, little communist girl that never smiled. Perhaps you’ll understand this. Fuck off.

[Sarcastr0]

Oh, and 1182(d)(5)(A) is a grant of authority; Biden used it he didn't break it.

8 U.S.C. § 1226 has 'may' right there in the first line.

[Riva]

You've actually forfeited the right to a response. But maybe have earned a fuck off. Sure, I'll be generous. Fuck off.

[Sarcastr0]

Your AI slop was bad.

You've got nothing, since you don't know the INA. All you have is AI. Which is a poor excuse for actual understanding.

So you bluster offense, rather than respond to the pretty elementary points you got wrong. Or rather the AI you outsourced to got it wrong.

[Riva]

So you don’t understand fuck off either? How about piss off?

[thesafesurfer]

This is a legislative not a judicial issue. I would be against it completely because giving believers in the fabricated "universal right to immigrate" an inch in would open up a slippery slope where they would try to expand it through a tyrannical judiciary leading to an invasion of the nation by twenty million unvetted, foreigners.

Mr. Somin has no idea the damage that he and his kind have done to their immigration policy prospects by perpetuating the last four years of invasion by millions up millions of unvetted, illegal immigrants followed by their endless legal tyranny to thwart the democratic will to deport them.

No support whatsoever, and I will organize a letter writing campaign to prevent it given the history of the fabricated "universal right to immigrate" movement.

[not guilty]

thesafesurfer, which Native American tribe are you descended from?

[Z Crazy]

Stop that bullshit argument.

You people support mass migration into Europe, which resulted in the Colonge Sex Attacks against white girls!

[thesafesurfer]

What tattoo parlor put "idiot" on your forehead?

[Roger S]

Somin does have an idea. His whole purpose is to inflict damage on the USA. Everything he advocates is to make the nation worse.

[thesafesurfer]

I do not believe that Somin wants to hurt the United States. America is small potatoes to Ilya. He wants to impose his fabricated "universal right to immigration" on the entire globe.

[Taco8647]

“This is a legislative… issue.”

You should have just stopped there, but manifesto-ing feels so good.

[F.D. Wolf]

I very much doubt that anyone who hasn't already bought into the notion that flooding the country with Third World immigrants is a great idea will find the argument "compelling".

I have noticed that, increasingly in their rhetoric, open-borders advocates don't even bother to pay lip service to the idea that these aliens will "assimilate". Now it's just they "contribute". But that really is how this crowd has always viewed these immigrants, as a permanent servant class, a permanent underclass. In the end, they always come back to, "Who will pick the lettuce?", "Who will clean the toilets?", "Who will mow my lawn?", etc.

[Roger S]

Somin is a Russian Jew. He has no interest in assimilation.

[bernard11]

Fuck you, Roger.

You are nothing but an ignorant all-purpose bigot.

[Roger S]

Somin would say that anyone who disagrees with him is ignorant.

[bernard11]

You have no idea what Somin would say. And whatever he says doesn't change the fact that you are an ignorant all-purpose bigot.

[Riva]

If anyone would know bigots, it’s the left. Bigotry is your specialty. Hard to turn around in this comments section without running into one. You especially seem to attract religious bigots.

[Sarcastr0]

Once again, your response reads like a pre-canned subroutine; unengaged with the actual post other than spotting a single word.

[F.D. Wolf]

I have many issues with Somin, though none of them have to do with his being a "Russian Jew". I have nothing but the greatest respect and admiration for the Jews. As Christ himself said, "Salvation is from the Jews." And while I have many criticisms of Somin, I would certainly never accuse him of being "unassimilated". In fact, he is probably too assimilated, as he seems quite entrenched in the oikophobic milieu that dominates what passes for our "intelligentsia" these days.

[Roger S]

So Somin has assimilated himself from being a Russian Jew into American intelligentsia oikophobia? I would just call it America hatred.

[Taco8647]

This notion is absurd.

It’s less a stereotype than an archetype now. Every city in America has a 7Eleven owned and operated by a family of south Asian immigrants who showed up with nothing. Yet within a few decades somehow the family has a cardiologist, architect, biochemist, plus a bevy of realtors and kids with various other business ventures.

They’re all paying the taxes that subsidize rust belt retards and mah medicare and mah dahbeetus - if that ain’t assimilatin’ then I don’t know what is.

[Brett Bellmore]

Of course it is. The issue is that people coming here from some cultures assimilate better than people coming here from other cultures.

And Somin doesn't want us to be allowed to take that into account.

[Sarcastr0]

people coming here from some cultures assimilate better than people coming here from other cultures
The issue is you're pre-judging individuals based on their national origin.
That's a suspect class for a reason. It's to stymie bigots like you.

[wvattorney13]

Brett's statement seems like a rather obvious truth. You don't think the average American could assimilate more easily into the UK culture as opposed to the Russian culture?

That's not bigotry to say that. It would be bigotry to say that because of race, a certain person cannot possibly assimilate due to his inferiority. To make an observation about groups of people is something we do all of the time in a variety of contexts.

[Taco8647]

It’s at least a policy argument when framed that way. The initial comment in the thread is boilerplate MAGA jingoism.

On one hand: preferential admission for culturally similar (very generally defined) migrants. Perhaps some language or civics standard; proven skills, etc. This is sort of reflective of the current visa system?

On the other: come as you are, prove your worth, pay your own way, register at the nearest office and file tax returns according to the appropriate schedule. No quotas, but no assistance. Turns enforcement into a data problem; not a masked-dudes-with-guns-here-to-kidnap-people problem.

Give me option 2: let these people figure out their situation with minimal intervention. If they can’t hack it, they’ll leave. Maybe they’ll get fed up with all the stupid occupational licensing required to serve an arepa con queso in most states and peace out.

[Sarcastr0]

Brett presented it as 'an issue.' It is not some anodyne observation about some imaginary 'average America' but a broad-spectrum attack on some cultures. Which ones, Brett won't say.

As Taco said, it's pre-judging individuals based on group reputation. That's stereotyping at best, and bigotry at worst.

As I said, we Constitutionally forbid that kind of policymaking for a reason.

[David Nieporent]

Of course it is. The issue is that people coming here from some cultures assimilate better than people coming here from other cultures.

What do you even mean by that, Brett? Eating the right foods? Listening to the right music? Worshipping the right deities? Because those sorts of things seem to be of major concern to MAGA. I would say "Not reacting negatively and violently to the sight of LGBTQD#FIFU people," but MAGA definitely doesn't have that one down.

[Sarcastr0]

Wolf - assimilate was going out of fashion by the 1990s. That melting pot paradigm has people giving up their culture to fit in.

Nowadays we understand subcultures are not a threat; integration not assimilation.

that really is how this crowd has always viewed these immigrants, as a permanent servant class
You are conflating parolees with illegals.
It's also a fact of economics who does ag jobs these days, and who wants to among America's working class. The solution is not to get cruel or do mass deportations, it's to pay a working wage and regularize the system we have.

[JonFrum]

These people are the enemies of the United States. They are as much enemies as any foreign soldiers or leaders have ever been. Like the Woke, they want to end the United States as a historical entity. The same thing is happening in Britian and Ireland right now.

[bernard11]

You too are an ignorant bigot.

Who are "these people?" Immigrants?

"Let's sneak in to the US and pick crops and put up drywall. That'll show 'em." Real revolutionaries there.

[Roger S]

Most of these people in the parole programs do not even qualify as immigrants.

[Riva]

You would be far more credible if you didn’t parrot the sick dehumanization rhetoric employed by certain Teutonic peoples against their jewish friends in the 30s and 40s. And also favored by the deranged in general.

[Sarcastr0]

What Nazi rhetoric do you think bernard used?

[Taco8647]

These are parole programs, you dumb shit. Read the article. These people are fleeing the enemies (if not actual, certainly philosophical) of the United States.

They largely bring work ethic and hope, which your kind spurn in favor of lassitude and fear. If they’re taking your jerbs, you’re too damn stupid to live anyway.

[Roger S]

It would be better if they put that effort into improving their home countries.

[Taco8647]

Nah - I’ll take their effort here. Call it a trade surplus.

[Social Justice is neither]

You and Ilya will tell any lie to get the open borders dystopia you want.

[Sarcastr0]

If you think there's a lie, then call it out and disprove it.

Otherwise you're just table pounding.
Which says more about what sets you off and your lack of control than anything anyone else has posted.

[Taco8647]

It’s just here to loudly provide social proof of the new dogma on true believers and maybe scare undecided passers-by.

The fundamental flaw here is immutable. They want to remove supply from a demand driven system.

Naturally, the “laws” to which they point are outside of their comprehension even if they could identify them. It’s really just a drum they can beat. But even if such laws were heavily enforced, they wouldn’t be effective without taking the economic reality into account. Demand always wins.

[Sarcastr0]

Trump has really revealed how many of these types are uninterested in argument and just want to yell at the people they feel are bad.

[Taco8647]

Amen. It’s his true gift. He can tap into the strongest hatred there is - self-hatred - and send these empty schmucks to tell his tales with a sense of purpose.

[David Nieporent]

Brett should read insane rants like this every time he tries to tell himself that it's really just illegal immigration that MAGA oppose. They hate all immigrants.

[not guilty]

"These people are the enemies of the United States. They are as much enemies as any foreign soldiers or leaders have ever been."

Please refresh my memory, JonFrum. When did Congress declare war on "[t]hese people"?

[Roger S]

Congress did pass laws about who can come into the USA, and Pres. Trump has been trying to enforce those laws.

[not guilty]

One more time. When did Congress declare war on "[t]hese people"?

[not guilty]

The Trump Department of Justice has reportedly fired Maurene Comey, who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and who is former FBI Director James Comey’s daughter, from her job in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office. That firing could not have come at a more inauspicious time. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/16/maurene-comey-fired-doj-00458921

If anyone knows what is in the Epstein files held (or perhaps formerly held) by the Department of Justice, it would be the line prosecutor who secured the conviction of Ms. Maxwell.

Vito Corleone advised his son Michael, "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfHJDLoGInM

President Lyndon Johnson reportedly said of his decision to retain J. Edgar Hoover as FBI director, "It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in." https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover

Pam (Bottle) Blondie apparently has not learned that lesson.

[Brett Bellmore]

Formerly held probably is the right way to put it, and more than one administration has had a chance to remove stuff. Or even add it...

But as I said in another thread, nothing more inclines me to believe that Trump is guilty, than the way he's reacting to demands that these files be released. The only thing that makes me doubt that, really, is that the Biden DOJ probably would have leaked them in a heartbeat if they'd genuinely made Trump look bad.

Well, if they'd made Trump and only Trump look bad. Maybe they just made too many people on BOTH sides of the aisle look bad...

[Sarcastr0]

Yes, you are enthusiastically bandying about your tepid 'this could be bad for Trump' take.

It's notable for how it concede just a little, and then stops.

About your usual level of 'I'm not really a MAGA tool, look here's me free thinking' without actually any functional upshot.

[MaddogEngineer]

Just stopped by to remind Somin that current asylum law only recognizes claims of political or personal safety persecution, not economic hardship. This is once again a case where he conflates his policy preference advocacy for open borders with his purported description of the law. Sure, he is talking about political persecution, but as he has made clear here and elsewhere, he does not think any immigration restrictions are legitimate or lawful. So it's difficult to trust the reliability of his parsing of laws which he doesn't believe in.

Whether an asylum seeker wants entry seeking a better way of life is irrelevant, though noteworthy. Does not make admission compelling. Not a reason to expand admissions, when we've already had so many uncontrolled entries because of lax enforcement. Because Somin approves of that makes his advocacy discountable.

[Sarcastr0]

Sure, he is talking about political persecution, but

So in this post he's not conflating anything, you are. Because you have an argument you'd rather make than engage with the content here.

Don't be lazy. Go at the post, not other things the poster said elsewhere.

You and I both know Prof. Somin well enough to know your chance on the issue you want will come around soon enough; he's not afraid to retread favored ground.

[MaddogEngineer]

I did read it. That's why I wrote what I did. You are being lazy, not dealing with the totality of my recurring point: that Somin regularly conflates his policy preferences with legality or legitimacy. Often he fails to distinguish them, to try and dress up his preference as the state of the law, if only judges would be smart enough to recognize it

You're not talking to a MAGA Know-Nothing here. I'm in favor of legal immigration and lots of it. So I oppose both the extreme MAGA shut the border, and Somin's open it to all. Because he will always find a reason to. And we're not going to have any kind of political peace as long as people like Somin and Democrats advocate for open borders. None of those already here have any hope of regularization as long as they resist the idea of controlling the border. Especially because it's politically untenable to have open borders and a welfare state.