The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that migrants seeking parole into the United States must now pay a $1,000 fee—a major policy shift by the Trump administration aimed at cracking down on widespread abuse of the immigration system.
Effective immediately, the new fee applies to all parole-related requests, including initial parole, re-parole, parole in place, and parole from DHS custody. Migrants seeking entry under these categories will now be required to pay, unless they qualify for a narrow set of exemptions. These include urgent medical emergencies, attending the funeral of a loved one, or imminent death of a close family member.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin blamed the Biden administration for weakening the nation’s immigration system by turning parole into a backdoor amnesty program. “The Biden Administration abused America’s immigration system and turned parole into a de facto amnesty program, thereby allowing millions of unvetted illegal aliens into the U.S., no questions asked, to the detriment of all Americans,” she said.
McLaughlin credited President Donald Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for restoring accountability and integrity to the immigration system. “Through the implementation of this new fee, President Trump and Secretary Noem are guaranteeing that foreign nationals, who wish to stay here, have skin in the game and do not exploit the system.”
The move comes in response to revelations from the House Judiciary Committee last year, which exposed widespread fraud in the parole pipeline created under President Biden and then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The report found that convicted criminals and sex traffickers had used Biden’s parole system to gain entry into the United States.
Critics of the previous administration’s immigration policies say parole was routinely granted without proper vetting, contributing to record illegal immigration numbers and endangering public safety.
With this new policy, the Trump administration continues its aggressive push to dismantle Biden-era immigration loopholes and reassert strict control over who is allowed to remain in the country.
