Controversial migrant flight program shut down over concerns of 'rampant fraud'
The Biden administration's border crisis had taken a backseat to recent events, including President Joe Biden dropping out of the race, but the immigration chaos is still unfolding.
According to the Daily Mail, Department of Homeland Security officials recently announced the shutdown of a program that was flying in thousands of illegal immigrants from Central American countries.
The program was halted after it was revealed that massive fraud had taken place within the program's parameters.
Reports indicated that an internal DHS memo revealed "rampant fraud among the sponsors paying for the migrants to come to the country."
What's going on?
The crux of the fraud deals with "sponsors" of the illegals being flown to the United States. They must agree to "provide financial support to a beneficiary and undergo background checks."
The bombshell report revealed that just 3,200 "sponsors" were responsible for over 10,000 migrants, and the disparity prompted concerns that the program was being widely abused.
Even more disturbing was further proof that massive fraud was taking place, as many of the so-called "sponsors" on the forms being turned in were identifications attributed to deceased people.
The Daily Mail noted:
Additionally, storage units were found to be the home address for some sponsor applications, while certain phone numbers were used on thousands of applications.
Almost 3,000 sponsors applications were filled out using fake zip codes, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) a conservative immigration nonprofit which first obtained the report, found.
The DHS was quick to release a statement to do some level of damage control, saying the agency put "review mechanisms in place to detect and prevent fraud and abuse in our immigration processes. DHS takes any abuse of its processes very seriously."
The statement added, "Where fraud is identified, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will investigate and litigate applicable cases in immigration court and make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice."
"Out of an abundance of caution, DHS has temporarily paused the issuance of advanced travel authorizations for new beneficiaries while it undertakes a review of supporter applications. DHS will restart application processing as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards."
"Shut it down"
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was one of the first Republicans to demand that the program be scrapped entirely.
"Shut it down permanently" Johnson said. "This program should have never existed in the first place."
He added, "It's just another way the Biden-Harris Administration has welcomed hundreds of thousands of aliens into our country, unchecked."
It's doubtful the Biden administration will scrap the program, and it will take Donald Trump winning the White House for that to actually happen. Let's hope that's the case.