A number of Home Republican lawmakers demanded solutions from the Harris-Biden administration on Monday as to why a former high Cuban Communist Social gathering official was issued an immigrant visa, permitting him to legally migrate to the US.
Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.), María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Home Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Immigration Integrity, Safety, and Enforcement Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) slammed the “lapses in vetting” that allowed Manuel Menendez Castellanos to fly into Miami by way of a US-run visa parole program for Cubans, in letters despatched to Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“Menendez Castellanos’s entry into the USA raises severe questions in regards to the Biden-Harris Administration’s utility of federal immigration regulation and the vetting procedures used through the immigrant visa utility course of,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Below the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), an alien is inadmissible as an immigrant if the alien ‘is or has been a member of or affiliated with the Communist, or another totalitarian social gathering, home or overseas.’”
Menendez was beforehand a high official inside Cuba’s Communist Social gathering within the metropolis of Cienfuegos, El Nuevo Herald reported earlier this month.
He additionally represented Cuba at worldwide boards and was given awards by the Cuban authorities, the outlet added.
In his position as a provincial-level Communist Social gathering chief, Menendez was a member of late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s “coordination and assist group” and he performed a job “in suppressing the Cuban individuals for many years,” in keeping with the lawmakers.
Menendez was allowed to enter the US beneath the Cuban Reunification Parole Program on Aug. 15, on the premise that he’s the father or mother of a US citizen.
The Home Judiciary Committee investigated Menendez’s immigrant visa utility and located that when questioned by immigration officers, Menendez denied any affiliation with Cuba’s Communist Social gathering.
Nonetheless, in a subsequent immigration utility doc, the committee discovered that Menendez admitted to and downplayed earlier membership within the Communist Social gathering of Cuba.
Of their letter to Mayorkas and Blinken, the lawmakers expressed shock that Menendez was not deemed inadmissible beneath the INA, given his admission and stories of his previous work for the Castro regime.
“Whereas the INA incorporates a restricted variety of exceptions to the inadmissibility floor, it doesn’t seem that the Biden-Harris Administration even invoked one of many exceptions to approve an immigrant visa for Menéndez Castellanos,” the lawmakers wrote. “As a substitute, Biden-Harris Administration immigration officers seemingly ignored Menéndez Castellanos’s personal admission as to his affiliation with the Communist Social gathering of Cuba.”
“Doubtlessly much more regarding is that safety vetting carried out by the Biden-Harris Administration failed to seek out proof that Menéndez Castellanos was affiliated with Fidel Castro’s brutal regime, regardless of overwhelming publicly-available proof of his long-time and intensive work inside that regime,” they added. “Had the Biden-Harris Administration bothered to conduct a easy, five-minute web search, it will have uncovered Menéndez Castellanos’s disturbing ties to the Castro regime.”
The congressional reps known as it “inexcusable” that Menendez was allowed entry into the US, and argued that his admittance underscored the Harris-Biden administration’s “lax method to nationwide safety” and “need to placate Communist regimes and undermine America’s values and standing on the world stage.”
The committee demanded all of Menendez’s immigration information in addition to explanations from Mayorkas and Blinken in regards to the “lapses in vetting” that occurred and why Menendez was not deemed inadmissible beneath the INA.
The Put up has reached out to the State Division and Division of Homeland Safety for remark.
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