Parole program CHNV recipients will need to find alternative benefits, or leave the country: DHS
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration is saying those whose parole is expiring from the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV) program will need to seek another immigration benefits and if they don’t find one, depart the country.
CHNV was implemented by the Biden administration with the intention to reduce irregular migration of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, and to allow qualifying individuals to lawfully enter the United States in a safe and orderly manner on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.
The program was briefly paused for fraud concerns but has been reimplemented with better safeguards.
These processes were set up as temporary in nature, a source told ABC News, to allow the beneficiaries to work and provide them the time and opportunity to pursue avenues for immigration benefits or humanitarian relief if eligible such as, for example, asylum or Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
“As initially stated in the Federal Register notices, a grant of parole under these processes was for a temporary period of up to two years,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ABC News. “This two-year period was intended to enable individuals to seek humanitarian relief or other immigration benefits for which they may be eligible, and to work and contribute to the United States.”
The Department said those who do not have pending immigration benefits or who have not been granted an immigration benefit during their two-year parole period will need to depart the United States before the expiration of their authorized parole period or may be placed in removal proceedings after the period of parole expires.
CHNV parolees may be eligible to apply for humanitarian relief or certain immigration benefits with USCIS, the Department said.
DHS points to the CHNV process as an example of a southwest border encounter reducer.
(NEW YORK) — Linda Sun, a former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, schemed to advance the interests of China while working in New York State government, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
The indictment charges Sun with failure to register as a foreign agent, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering conspiracy.
Her husband, Christopher Hu, allegedly facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars in kickbacks for personal gain, prosecutors said.
Sun and her husband were arrested at their Long Island home Tuesday morning, according to federal prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York and the FBI. The FBI had searched the Manhasset home in July.
Both are due in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday afternoon. It was not immediately clear whether they are represented by attorneys.
Sun was hired by the Executive Chamber more than a decade ago, before being fired last year, according to Avi Small, Hochul’s press secretary.
“We terminated her employment in March 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct, immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process,” Small said in a statement to ABC News.
Sun worked in state government for about 15 years before she was fired last year from her job as deputy commissioner for strategic business development at the New York State Department of Labor. She previously served as Hochul’s deputy chief of staff and in the administration of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The indictment alleges that, acting at the request of Chinese government officials and representatives of the Chinese Communist Party, Sun blocked Taiwanese government officials from having access to high-level New York State officers, changed New York State officers’ messaging about China and arranged meetings for visiting delegations from the PRC government with New York State government officials.
In return for these and other actions, Sun allegedly received economic and other benefits from China, including the facilitation of millions of dollars in transactions for the China-based business activities of Hu; travel benefits; tickets to events; promotion of a close family friend’s business; employment for Sun’s cousin in the PRC; and Nanjing-style salted ducks prepared by a PRC government official’s personal chef that were delivered to the residence of Sun’s parents, according to the indictment.
“As alleged, while appearing to serve the people of New York as Deputy Chief of Staff within the New York State Executive Chamber, the defendant and her husband actually worked to further the interests of the Chinese government and the CCP,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. “The illicit scheme enriched the defendant’s family to the tune of millions of dollars.”
(STATESBORO, Ga.) — Len Fatica is a member of a political species that’s practically extinct in deep red Statesboro, Georgia — a rural Democrat.
ABC News traveled to the biggest city in Georgia’s southeastern Bulloch County, with a population of around 34,000. It boasts four different Main Streets (one for each point of the compass) and a persistent gnat problem.
“People are, for the most part, very friendly,” Fatica, the Georgia Democratic Party’s rural council chair, told ABC News. “They will sit down and have a conversation with you even if they disagree with you.”
Plenty of people disagree with Fatica, who’s running for county commission and leading an initiative to attract rural voters to the state Democratic Party. They meet each week at a local coffee shop to talk strategy, and he acknowledged how difficult it is for Democrats to make inroads in rural areas.
“If you look at Bulloch County down here, we’re probably close to 70% that is Republican,” he said. “This is a deep Republican area.”
Fatica accepted the persistent criticism that Democrats left rural voters behind long ago in favor of urban populations, but he believes locals might be gradually drawn back — a possibility suggested when Joe Biden narrowly won the swing state in the 2020 presidential election.
“At one time, it was a Democratic county,” he said. “Talking to Republicans, they feel within 10 years, with the manufacturing jobs that are being moved in, this could become a Democratic county again.”
Fatica highlighted the importance of Democrats taking on Trump’s rhetoric, even when talking to deep red voters.
“We’ve got to punch back, and we’ve got to punch back on the falsehoods that are told,” he said.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice of running mate might also move the needle, according to Fatica. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who formally accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, regularly highlights his rural roots in speeches and rallies.
“Growing up I spent the summers working on the family farm,” Walz said on Aug. 6. “My mom and dad taught us — show generosity toward your neighbors and work for the common good.”
Lifelong Democrats Robin Hutcheson and her daughter Aliya Johnson highlighted how unusual they are, living in Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s northwest Georgia congressional district.
“You see a lot of trucks with Trump flags and a lot of Trump flags in the yard, and we are like little blue dots in a big red sea,” Hutcheson said.
They agreed that Walz could appeal to rural Americans.
“I feel like Tim is genuinely a person who has high morals, who is a good, upstanding person,” Johnson said. “That kind of represents the older style of respectability that I think older voters got used to and that newer voters still want to lean on and believe is the right thing, and a good thing.”
The mother and daughter agreed that Democrats haven’t been this excited since Obama’s bids for the White House.
“This is the first time that we really feel like change is possible,” Johnson said.
Political strategist Fred Hicks noted his belief that Georgia has become competitive because many of the culture wars that defined America for generations have subsided — there are multiple issues rather than a single issue driving people to vote.
“The economic issue is really what’s, I think, pushing people because you have not had the economic growth outside of these urban nodes,” Hicks said of the rural areas.
Peter Fuller is the chair of the northeastern Jackson County’s Democratic Party and knows flipping any rural part of Georgia is a tall order. Trump won 78% of the Jackson County vote in 2020.
“These are counties that have been like this for a while. They are long-term projects,” he said. “Most of these communities are agriculture based. We have issues of either not having population growth, or loss in some cases. Health care is a big one.”
Fuller noted that translating some national policies into something relatable for Jackson County voters can be challenging.
“It’s a lot easier to do with somebody like Tim Walz,” he said.
What remains to be seen is whether the hope and excitement around the Harris-Walz ticket can translate into votes and victory for the Democratic Party in rural America.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department filed suit against Virginia on Friday over a statewide program aimed at removing voters from its election rolls in the lead-up to the 2024 election if DMV records don’t indicate United States citizenship.
The Department said it filed the lawsuit based on a federal law that prohibits purges from rolls within the 90-day period leading up to an election.
“As the National Voter Registration Act mandates, officials across the country should take heed of the law’s crystal clear and unequivocal restrictions on systematic list maintenance efforts that fall within 90 days of an election,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
The system, implemented via executive order by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, has already faced lawsuits from several immigration rights groups.
The DOJ recently filed a similar lawsuit against the state of Alabama over similar voter roll purges.
The Justice Department seeks injunctive relief that “would restore the ability of impacted eligible voters to vote unimpeded on Election Day,” the department said in a statement.
In a statement on the governor’s website, Youngkin called the lawsuit a “politically motivated action,” and vowed to not “stand idly by.”