Overview
- A Government Accountability Office report published in May 2026 documents a sharp rise in DHS use of humanitarian parole from 2021 through Jan. 20, 2025, with a peak in December 2022 when 89 percent of southwest border encounters resulted in parole.
- The report says parole grants fell substantially after December 2022 and fell again after the administration change in January 2025.
- GAO found that DHS systems did not provide readily accessible information on parole status, which means ICE often lacked the data needed to identify, monitor, or take enforcement action on many parolees.
- Conservative outlets have seized on the findings to call the practice a form of 'catch-and-release,' while some former DHS officials profiled in the press are urging alternatives to detention such as case-management or 'immigration probation' programs.
- Parole was historically used sparingly before 2021, and the report frames the 2021–2025 pattern as a notable departure with implications for how Congress, DHS, CBP, USCIS, and ICE manage migrant flows and oversight going forward.