To the editor:
A letter to the editor in the April fourth edition of the Enterprise repeats a pernicious falsehood about US immigration policy. The letter writer claimed that “Border Patrol recently admitted it has flown 320,000 illegal aliens from foreign airports into our country,” and accused Biden of dishonesty for allegedly concealing this supposedly secret information.
It would have been nice if the writer had taken a few minutes to find out the facts. First, the program isn’t secret. Flight details aren’t made public, but the program itself is public information. The number of people allowed in under this program is published monthly on CBP.gov. Second, those allowed in pay for their plane tickets; they aren’t “flown in” on free flights by the US government. Third, these people are vetted. Each has a valid passport from their native country and an American sponsor. And they have all applied for asylum under CPB rules, so no, they’re not “illegal aliens.” They’re allowed to stay in the US on “parole status” for one to two years while their asylum claims are adjudicated. If their asylum requests are not granted, they must leave or be deported. And, no, participation in the program doesn’t give them the right to vote. That can only happened for those who are granted asylum and then later go on to become U.S. citizens.
