President Joe Biden has utilized immigration “parole” more extensively than any of his predecessors, employing this presidential power to navigate around a resistant Congress. However, he is not the first president to do so.
The utilization of parole by Biden has been a central aspect of his strategy to direct immigrants through new and expanded legal pathways while discouraging illegal crossings, marking a departure from the approach taken by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Biden has granted temporary visits, amounting to at least 1 million, which typically entail eligibility to work. In contrast, Trump, who has expressed his intention to return to the White House, has vowed to put an end to what he deems as the “outrageous abuse of parole.”
Established under a 1952 law, parole allows the president to admit individuals on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. This authority has been exercised 126 times by every president since its inception, with the exception of Trump, according to David Bier of the pro-immigration Cato Institute.
