A number of Home Republican lawmakers demanded solutions from the Harris-Biden administration on Monday as to why a former prime Cuban Communist Get together 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 through 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 america raises severe questions concerning the Biden-Harris Administration’s utility of federal immigration legislation and the vetting procedures used in the course of the immigrant visa utility course of,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Beneath 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 every other totalitarian celebration, home or international.’”
Menendez was beforehand a prime official inside Cuba’s Communist Get together 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 function as a provincial-level Communist Get together chief, Menendez was a member of late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s “coordination and help staff” and he performed a task “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 idea that he’s the guardian 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 Get together.
Nonetheless, in a subsequent immigration utility doc, the committee discovered that Menendez admitted to and downplayed earlier membership within the Communist Get together 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 reviews of his previous work for the Castro regime.
“Whereas the INA comprises 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 an alternative, Biden-Harris Administration immigration officers seemingly ignored Menéndez Castellanos’s personal admission as to his affiliation with the Communist Get together of Cuba.”
“Doubtlessly much more regarding is that safety vetting performed 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 in depth work inside that regime,” they added. “Had the Biden-Harris Administration bothered to conduct a easy, five-minute web search, it might 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 strategy 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 recordsdata in addition to explanations from Mayorkas and Blinken concerning the “lapses in vetting” that occurred and why Menendez was not deemed inadmissible beneath the INA.
The Publish has reached out to the State Division and Division of Homeland Safety for remark.