New Biden Program Brings Less Border Security, More Marriage Fraud

August 26, 2024

By Matt O’Brien

The Biden-Harris administration recently began taking applications for its Parole-in-Place program (PIP).

Under this new scheme an illegal alien who: has lived in the U.S. for 10 years or more; married a U.S. citizen prior to June 17, 2024; and can show that his/her deportation would cause extreme hardship to their citizen spouse can apply for PIP.

If this whole setup sounds fishy, that’s because it is.

To begin with, there is absolutely nothing in the immigration laws of the United States that says illegal aliens can magically obtain lawful status simply by marrying a U.S. citizen. In fact, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) – the statute that establishes who may lawfully enter and remain in the U.S. – clearly states that foreign nationals who wish to obtain a green card must: 1) enter the country lawfully; and 2) maintain lawful status until they are approved as lawful permanent residents. Accordingly, this is nothing short of a Biden administration plot to create an immigration amnesty – something no president has been able to achieve properly, through legislation.

Additionally, immigration parole is a legal fiction under which an alien is considered, as a matter of law, to be outside of America, while being physically within the U.S. Parole was established for the convenience of the United States government. It is supposed to be used sparingly, on a case-by-case basis. And it only applies in cases of “urgent humanitarian reasons” or where it results in “significant public benefit” to the United States.

Illegal aliens, who cut the line and unlawfully jumped the border, wanting a path to citizenship isn’t a case of urgent humanitarian need. And rewarding illegal aliens for breaking our laws certainly doesn’t create any significant public benefit for American citizens or law-abiding aliens. In fact, it does exactly the opposite, undermining the integrity of our entire border security regime.

But aside from encouraging more immigration violations, the PIP program will also inspire both illegal aliens and U.S. citizens to break other laws. It is both a crime and a deportable offense to transact a bogus marriage in order to obtain a matrimonially-based immigration status. But marriage to an American citizen is now the magic key that grants illegal aliens a pathway to lawful status and eventual citizenship. And the incentive to engage in a fraudulent marriage to game the immigration system may now be too hard to resist.

In the United States, civil marriage is subject to very few legal bars. Unlike a religious marriage, there is no scrutiny of the motives underlying a civilly sanctioned matrimonial union. And virtually anyone who is of age, single, and not related to their prospective spouse, can transact a marriage. Two strangers who meet in a Las Vegas casino, and who have known each other for less than two hours, can subsequently transact a legally binding marriage after completing simple forms and paying a nominal registration fee. And, except for situations involving incest, bigamy and the exploitation of minors, the penalties for violating state marriage laws are few and irregularly enforced.

While the penalties for immigration marriage fraud are high – five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine – they’re not enforced frequently enough. Part of this is due to the difficulty of proving that a marriage was entered into expressly for the purpose of defrauding the government.

However, it also has to do with the narrative pushed in popular media products such as the films “Green Card” and “The Proposal.” Therein, illegal aliens are portrayed as victims and Americans who marry them to confer immigration status are lauded as outlaw folk heroes bucking an oppressive system.

Inevitably, illegal aliens are going to start paying Americans for a quickie marriage. For U.S. citizens a $25,000 (or larger payout) for showing up and saying, “I do,” coupled with a low risk of being arrested and tried may be too tempting to resist. For illegal aliens, the calculus is even easier. Virtually nothing is worth more than the right to live and work in the U.S., as well as petition for family members to immigrate here.

And not everyone who applies for PIP is going to be Joe Average from Tegucigalpa looking to fulfill his dream of owning a construction company in El Norte. Foreign criminals, terrorists, and intelligence operators are going to be crawling out of the woodwork to sign up for this program. Five years in prison and a $250,000 fine doesn’t even trigger a warning alarm in the risk matrix under which these groups operate.

So, in order to accommodate trespassers, our current political leaders have deliberately undermined two of the key institutions upon which American society is built – respect for the rule of law and marriage. But they’re ignoring a fundamental rule that every parent, teacher, corporate manager and law enforcement professional knows intuitively – if you reward bad behavior, you’re only going to encourage more bad behavior. And we should all be asking, just how many more badly behaving foreigners can the U.S. handle?

Matt O’Brien is the Director of Investigations at the Immigration Reform Law Institute and the co-host of IRLI’s podcast “No Border, No Country.” Immediately prior to working for IRLI he served as an immigration judge. He has nearly 30 years of experience in immigration law and policy, having held numerous positions within the Department of Homeland Security.

Also published at American Thinker, August 24, 2024.