A group of House Republicans is reminding President Joe Biden he does not have any authority under existing federal immigration law to bring Palestinians from Gaza to the United States via a parole pipeline.
Reps. Josh Brecheen (R-OK), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), and Clay Higgins (R-LA) have sent a letter to Biden asking him to oppose resettling Palestinians across American communities — an issue the White House has been silent on even as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) have voiced their support for such a plan.
The Republicans write that “no authority exists to grant categorical parole” to a group of foreign nationals, even as Biden opened parole pipelines for Afghans and Ukrainians in the last two years.
“… we are deeply opposed to any potential attempts to parole into the U.S. Palestinians en masse following Israel’s counteroffensive against Hamas in Gaza,” they continue:
We would remind you that the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) prohibits you from categorically paroling mass groups of aliens into the U.S. Section 212 (d)(5)(A) of the INA sets strict limits on DHS’s ability to parole aliens into the U.S., stating that such action may only be done “on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.” Additionally, the law clearly states that parole authority cannot be used to circumvent the refugee program and parole an individual alien into the U.S., only “the [Secretary] determines that compelling reasons in the public interest” exist to do such according to Section 212 (d)(5)(B) of the INA. Your decision to flippantly violate such laws in the past two years is why 21 states have brought litigation against your administration in hope of terminating your unlawful Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela parole program. [Emphasis added]
Given concerns of terror attacks in our homeland, it is important as ever that matters are not made worse by attempting to parole Palestinians into our country. This should be obvious considering the DHS OIG report of Operation Allies Refuge which found your claim false that Afghans paroled by your administration “already completed extensive background checks,” and that information from many Afghan refugees like “name, date of birth, identification number, and travel document data, was inaccurate, incomplete or missing.” [Emphasis added]
The Republicans said Biden ought to “encourage Egypt to take in Palestinian refugees” which “would allow them to stay in a culturally akin country, separate them from Hamas, and simultaneously prevent Americans at home from being put in harm’s way.”
“At this critical time, our nation must remain committed to defending our homeland,” they write. “We remind you that you do not have the authority to grant parole en masse as specified under existing U.S. law. We oppose any efforts to parole into the U.S. any Palestinians from Gaza.”
The letter comes as Republicans across the U.S. have demanded Biden to publicly oppose resettling Palestinians in American communities while also committing to deporting foreign visa-holders who espouse pro-Hamas views.
As Breitbart News has reported, Reps. Ogles and Tom Tiffany (R-WI) have introduced the “GAZA Act” to ban the Biden administration from importing Palestinians to the U.S. Last week, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), introduced the legislation in the Senate.