The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has called allegations that a Haitian migrant raped a disabled 15-year-old girl "heinous."
Cory Alvarez, the 26-year-old Haitian national charged with raping the teen at a Massachusetts hotel housing migrants last week, entered the U.S. last summer via President Biden’s controversial CHNV parole program. He was flown into New York City directly from Haiti.
"CHNV" stands for Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela. The program allows up to 30,000 people each month from these countries to fly into the U.S. and be granted two years of humanitarian parole, which allows them to apply to work in the U.S.
Administration officials have said these individuals are screened and vetted against national security and public safety databases. Anyone found to be a threat to national or public safety is denied admission and removed.
Individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who are paroled into the U.S. must have a U.S.-based financial supporter and are responsible for arranging their own travel, administration officials have said.
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The policy was first announced for Venezuelans in October 2022, which allowed a limited number to fly directly into the U.S. as long as they had not entered illegally, had a sponsor in the U.S. already and passed certain checks.
In January 2023, the administration announced that the program was expanding to include Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans. The program allows for migrants to receive work permits and a two-year authorization to live in the U.S. and was announced alongside an expansion of Title 42 expulsions to include those nationalities.
Police in Rockland, Mass., responded to the Comfort Inn on Wednesday night for reports of a sexual assault. The hotel participates in a state and federal program to house migrant families, and Alvarez lived at the hotel.
The Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office said Alvarez went before a Hingham District Court judge on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to a single count of aggravated rape of a child.
"The Department cannot comment on ongoing criminal proceedings beyond the standard information provided by ICE," a DHS spokesperson told Fox News in a statement. "That said, the alleged crime is heinous, individuals should be held responsible to the fullest extent under the law."
Fox News’ Greg Wehner, Griff Jenkins, and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
