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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's Venezuelan community is speaking out against the Utah attorney general's decision to join 19 other Republican states in suing the Biden administration to halt its humanitarian parole program for migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela.
The program — which allows entry for up to 30,000 migrants total from the four countries each month — came in response to thousands of migrants at the southern border who are fleeing turmoil in their home countries. The Biden administration simultaneously announced tighter security at the border by increasing expulsions of migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba who are caught crossing illegally.
The two-pronged approach aims to alleviate the humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border by discouraging illegal migration and creating a pathway for asylum seekers to legally migrate to the U.S. To be eligible for the parole program, migrants must pass security screenings and have a U.S. sponsor who will provide financial support.
Those who have been caught illegally crossing the border are generally disqualified from the program. Instead, migrants can apply from their home countries. Once approved, migrants would be under a two-year parole and would receive permission to work in the U.S.
The program appeared to be successful prior to the states' lawsuit based on an earlier version limited to Venezuelans that was announced in October. Since then, Homeland Security reported a 90% drop in border encounters with Venezuelan migrants. Utah specifically has gone from receiving about 300 Venezuelan families each month to just 50, said Mayra Molina, director of the nonprofit Venezuelan Alliance of Utah.
She estimated Utah's total Venezuelan population is about 15,000.
"Our concern with this situation is that, if by any chance the parole goes away, our people are going to start coming through the southern border again — and that represents a lot of human trafficking, prostitution, kidnapping and all of those risks," Molina said. "Our point of view is that parole is a great alternative not just for Venezuelans but for the other nationalities as well to come and to have that legal support."
She added that the parole program made things easier for nonprofits like the Venezuelan Alliance of Utah by allowing them to anticipate how many migrants are coming to the state and to better work with immigration authorities.
Utah immigration lawyer Carlos Trujillo said a number of Venezuelan migrants have contacted his firm, Trujillo Acosta Law, after it conducted a Facebook Live session regarding the parole program. Many had already started their journey to the U.S. but stopped after the program was announced.
"They halted their plans in the middle of being in Panama or Mexico just because finally a way was given to them to do this the right way," he said. "All of these people have already sold their stuff, they have given everything away to seek refuge in this country and they stopped.
"How sad it is that they made that sacrifice and now they're going to go back to thinking, 'Well, I guess I'm going to have to restart my plans to cross a jungle or a river and risk my life just because I'm trying to find refuge from the persecution and suffering in my country.'"
Legal arguments
Utah and other states argue that the Department of Homeland Security is overstepping its power and that the program violates federal law.
"DHS, under the false pretense of preventing aliens from unlawfully crossing the border between the ports of entry, has effectively created a new visa program — without the formalities of legislation from Congress," the lawsuit states. "(The states) face substantial, irreparable harms from the department's abuse of its parole authority, which allow potentially hundreds of thousands of additional aliens to enter each of their already overwhelmed territories."
The states say the program does not meet the requirements for parole programs, namely that parole can be used "only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit."
Trujillo, the Utah immigration lawyer and a Venezuelan, says the states' argument is ludicrous.
"The way that it gets processed under the humanitarian parole is on a case-by-case basis. There are people who simply don't qualify because they have to do background checks among many things before they are granted the ability to come under humanitarian parole. So under the letter of the law, we are doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing with this program," he said.
"If there is anybody out there who can argue with me that what the (Venezuelan) Maduro regime is doing to the opposition or anybody who doesn't agree with them is not an urgent, humanitarian reason, they're just simply crazy," Trujillo said, adding that Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans are suffering under similar authoritarian regimes.
His sentiments are supported by a 2022 United Nations report that found that Venezuela is "still facing a profound human rights crisis," including extrajudicial executions, excessive use of force, arbitrary detentions and torture. Over 7 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2015. Reports from Human Rights Watch describe similar political and economic crises in Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua.
Molina agreed that the situations in Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua do constitute an urgent humanitarian reason.
"They're having this situation where people have to flee just to survive," she said. "In Venezuela's case, we know it's a regime where democracy is not there. We want to make sure that all the people that are receiving an opportunity to live in democracy, to know what it is to live in a free country."
'Utah not suing ... because we are anti-immigrant'
The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce issued a letter to the attorney general Wednesday, asking him to withdraw from the lawsuit.
"One of the issues affecting both Hispanic businesses and other businesses of the state is the current need of workers," the letter reads. "The humanitarian parole program addresses this issue by allowing immigrants to come legally to the United States and apply for a work permit. The humanitarian parole program is a great way for our state to get the help that many businesses require."
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox's office declined to comment on the lawsuit and referred questions to the Utah Attorney General's Office. The Utah Attorney General's Office did not respond to KSL.com's questions but issued a press release regarding the lawsuit.
"Utah is not suing the administration because we are anti-immigrant. We want as many people of good will from other nations to come legally and enjoy the liberties and opportunities my own father was blessed to have when he came to this country," Attorney General Sean Reyes said in a press release Thursday.
"We can think of many other actions that are legally sound and would truly assist those suffering at the border and being victimized by cartels and traffickers. Utah is not immune from the impact of increased illegal immigration. The Biden administration's open-borders agenda has caused many problems, including a humanitarian crisis, along with rising crime and violence in many cities."
'Purely a political act'
The parole program for Haitians, Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans was patterned after a similar program for Ukrainians. The Ukrainian program, however, did not receive pushback from states. Trujillo said that contrast points to the political nature of the states' lawsuit and suggests that the crises in Venezuela and other Latin American counties are being ignored.
"It's purely a political act. ... At the time Ukraine was being invaded by Russia and the war was starting, I guess it was not a good PR move to oppose something like that. But they don't have the same concerns for the other countries," he said.
"The Republican Party, specifically, cannot have their cake and eat it, too. They like to complain and show us how bad the situation is at the border, but now that there is a program that actually works and that actually brings legal migration on a temporary basis, they shut it down. The next surge at the border is to be blamed upon these lawsuits and these Republican states that decided to stop this program."
Trujillo added that while there is "a lot of blame to go around" when it comes to the state of the U.S. immigration system, he is concerned with a pattern of Republican states filing lawsuits against federal immigration programs in conservative Texas courts where they are likely to successfully halt those programs with an injunction. By the time the case has made its way to the Supreme Court, a change in presidency and thus immigration policy have rendered the case moot.
"I will plead with the local government to stop. These kinds of things cannot be done just because we are from one party, just because attorneys general need to be united in everything they do," he said.
"Utah is an immigrant state; we love immigrants here. ... Whoever is behind this in the state, whether it be the office of the attorney general or the governor's office — somebody needs to answer to all of us immigrants here that saw this as a great opportunity."
