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Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on November 15, 2021 in a Facebook post: The Build Back Better bill provides “\'parole\' amnesty for millions of criminal illegal aliens.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" mostly-false/6a6ef6075c162fdccf5eb960e683dcd1.jpg.\\") ![\\"barely- true\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") * Immigration * Federal Budget * Legal Issues * Crime * Facebook Fact-checks * Viral image ![\\"Immigrants](\\" Immigrants and their supporters march in Washington Sep. 21, 2021, calling on Congress to keep a pathway to citizenship in the budget reconciliation package. (AP) ![\\"Tom](\\" By Tom Kertscher November 23, 2021 # Build Back Better bill wouldn’t parole criminal immigrants #### If Your Time is short * Parole under immigration law means a temporary permit to stay for people who are in the country without permission. * The Build Back Better Act would grant immigration parole to some 7 million immigrants. Applicants for the program would have to pass a security and criminal background check. * People convicted of crimes would not be eligible for immigration parole. See the sources for this fact-check An image showing a bare-chested, heavily tattooed man attacks the Build Back Better bill by claiming: \"Build Back Illegal: \'Parole\' amnesty for millions of criminal illegal aliens.\" The image, shared on Facebook, was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The claim gives the misleading impression that people who entered the U.S. illegally and were convicted of crimes would be paroled and allowed to stay. But parole has a different meaning in immigration law, and the parole provisions of the bill as they’re currently written would not be available to people convicted of crimes in the U.S. Claim by ‘America first’ group The viral image alludes to members of criminal gangs. The photo of the man in the image appears to be cropped from a photo of three men that appears with articles about the MS-13 gang, which grew out of poor Los Angeles neighborhoods that housed many refugees from civil wars in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua in the 1980s. In the United States, law enforcement officials have indicted MS-13 members for a wide range of crimes, including racketeering, murders, attempted murders, assaults, obstruction of justice, arson and conspiracy to distribute marijuana. The image was shared by the Great American Movement in a post that urges people to tell their congressional representatives to oppose the Democratic- supported Build Back Better bill. The slogan of the group, which has 135,000 Facebook followers, is: \"\'America First\' should not just be a political slogan. It should be a way of life for all Americans.\" Great American Movement’s Facebook page lists GreatAmericanMovement.com as its contact information, but that link did not lead to a working website when we checked it on Nov. 23. We’re fact-checking the claim, made Nov. 15, based on the version of the Build Back Better Act that passed the House on Nov. 19. The bill could be changed in the Senate. Misleading use of ‘parole’ and ‘criminal’ In the criminal context, the word \"parole\" typically is understood as the early release from prison of a person convicted of a crime who must abide by certain conditions after release. But the term \"parole\" is also used in immigration law to describe a process that gives people who are in the U.S. without legal authorization temporary permission to stay. The permission is granted for humanitarian reasons or other reasons in the public interest, said Washington University law professor emeritus Stephen Legomsky, former chief counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" ![](\\" Social Media stated on September 6, 2024 in in social media posts Haitian immigrants are eating pets and wildlife in Springfield, Ohio. ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Jeff Cercone • September 9, 2024 Section 60001 of the Build Back Better bill would give a form of this parole to some 7 million immigrants who are in the country without permission, protecting them from deportation and formally admitting them into the United States if they file an application, pay a fee and pass criminal and security background checks. To be eligible, the immigrants must have arrived before Jan. 1, 2011, and have lived here ever since. If approved, they could get work permits that would be valid for five years and could be renewed one time for another five years, expiring on Sept. 30, 2031. People convicted of crimes in the U.S. would not be eligible for immigration parole under this provision, said Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. The wording of the claim in the post may suggest that simply living in the U.S. without permission makes a person a criminal. But that’s not necessarily the case. Entering the U.S. without permission is a crime — though it’s not always prosecuted on its own — but living in the United States without authorization is a civil violation, not a criminal offense. Many people who are in the U.S. without authorization entered legally but committed a civil violation by overstaying their visas or violating their conditions of admission, such as by working without authorization or dropping out of school, Cardinal Brown said. Under the bill, people who entered illegally, or entered legally but have overstayed, would be eligible for parole, she said, but convicted criminals would not. Legomsky said that while \"almost every serious crime will disqualify you from the parole program under this bill, illegal entry will not.\" Our ruling A viral image shared on Facebook alluded to members of criminal gangs and stated that the Build Back Better bill provides \"\'parole\' amnesty for millions of criminal illegal aliens.\" The post gives the impression that people who entered the U.S. illegally and committed crimes in the U.S. would be eligible for parole. But parole means something different in immigration law: temporary permission to stay for people who are in the country without permission. Under the bill, immigration parole would be available to people who entered the country legally or illegally before 2011, but not to people convicted of crimes. We rate the post Mostly False. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Facebook post, Nov. 15, 2021 Congress.gov, \"H.R.5376 - Build Back Better Act,\" accessed Nov. 22, 2021 House Rules Committee, \"Build Back Better Act — Rules Committee Print 117-18 Section-By-Section,\" accessed Nov. 22, 2021 Email, Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross- border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Nov. 22, 2021 FWD.us, \"Immigration Protections and Work Permits,\" Nov. 4, 2021 FWD.us, \"Visa Recapture & Backlog Reduction in the Build Back Better Act,\" Nov. 10, 2021 Email, Washington University law professor emeritus Stephen Legomsky, former chief counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security, Nov. 22, 2021 Email, Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, associate professor, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, Nov. 22, 2021 The Hill, \"House outlines immigration provisions in latest Build Back Better package,\" Nov. 3, 2021 The Hill, \"Giveaway to Big Tech in Build Back Better will hurt American workers,\" Nov. 4, 2021 The Hill, \"The truth about green card recapture,\" Nov. 19, 2021 U.S. Justice Department, news release, July 28, 2021 Wall Street Journal, \"Democrats Push Fix for Green-Card Logjam in Social- Spending Bill,\" Nov. 5, 2021 Fox Business, \"Build Back Better Act: Immigration provision grants 5-year parole to some migrants, shielding from deportation,\" Nov. 5, 2021 Washington Post, \"How the House spending bill sets a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants,\" Nov. 19, 2021 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Tom Kertscher slide 4 to 6 of 15 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 19, 2023 in an Instagram post: A wind turbine must “spin continually for over four years just to replace the energy it took to manufacture it.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • July 28, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" TikTok posts stated on July 15, 2023 in un video en TikTok: \"Biden elimina ‘tráfico sexual de menores’ como una de las prioridades del Departamento de Justicia de su gobierno”. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Maria Briceño • July 25, 2023 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 17, 2023 in an Instagram post: \"Florida to ban mRNA vaccines as credible evidence of biological weapons.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • July 18, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 26, 2023 in a Facebook post: Video suggests Canada wildfires were deliberately set to advance “smart cities” push. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • August 30, 2023 ![](\\" 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![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • August 28, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 9, 2023 in a Facebook post: Video shows military planes over Nashville \"dispersing materials into the atmosphere\" for geoengineering. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • August 23, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 20, 2023 in a Facebook post: “Official statement — Putin assassinated in the Kremlin!” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Tom Kertscher • August 22, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 8, 2023 in a Facebook post: \"The federal government has just declared a major food shortage emergency\" in six states. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • August 16, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Steve Kirsch stated on August 8, 2023 in a blog post: COVID-19 vaccines have killed 676,000 Americans. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Tom Kertscher • August 14, 2023 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on August 6, 2023 in a viral image: California passed a law “reducing penalties for oral, anal sex with willing children.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • August 9, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" TikTok posts stated on June 22, 2023 in a post: A new law allows people to permanently erase unpaid debt older than two years from their credit records. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • August 1, 2023 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 28, 2023 in a video: “Skin cancer is a relatively new phenomenon in the last 60 years or so.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • August 1, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on July 26, 2023 in a Facebook post: Says Bill Gates said, “We’re taking things that are genetically modified organisms, and we’re injecting them into little kids’ arms” in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • July 31, 2023 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 19, 2023 in an Instagram post: A wind turbine must “spin continually for over four years just to replace the energy it took to manufacture it.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • July 28, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" TikTok posts stated on July 15, 2023 in un video en TikTok: \"Biden elimina ‘tráfico sexual de menores’ como una de las prioridades del Departamento de Justicia de su gobierno”. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Maria Briceño • July 25, 2023 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 17, 2023 in an Instagram post: \"Florida to ban mRNA vaccines as credible evidence of biological weapons.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • July 18, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 26, 2023 in a Facebook post: Video suggests Canada wildfires were deliberately set to advance “smart cities” push. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • August 30, 2023 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on August 26, 2023 in a video: Women vaccinated against COVID-19 face \"unknown side effects that could perpetually go down through the lineage\" to their children. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • August 29, 2023 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 25, 2023 in a Facebook post: As of Aug. 25, \"Luis Rubiales has resigned as the president of the Spanish Football Federation.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Tom Kertscher • August 29, 2023 ### Build Back Better bill wouldn’t parole criminal immigrants * ![](\\" ![](\\" House Majority PAC stated on September 9, 2024 in a television ad: Laurie Buckhout is “trying to get to Congress to pass a national abortion ban, allowing politicians to ban abortions with no exceptions and prosecute women if they get an abortion, treating women right here like criminals.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Paul Specht • October 1, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump Jr. stated on September 9, 2024 in a post: “Less than three months ago, Kamala Harris and her administration blocked 300,000 unvetted Haitian migrants from being deported out of our country.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" X posts stated on September 30, 2024 in an X post: Photo shows President Joe Biden lounging on the beach \"while towns all over America were being wiped out” by Hurricane Helene. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Samantha Putterman • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Social Media stated on September 30, 2024 in in social media posts: “Biden Announces: ‘2.4 billion more to Ukraine’ but ‘no more aid for Hurricane Helene.’” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Jeff Cercone • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 24, 2024 in a post: “Olympic boxer Imane Khelif fails gender test, stripped of all titles, lifetime ban and $25 million prize money revoked!” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Grace Abels • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on September 30, 2024 in a press conference in Georgia: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was calling President Joe Biden after Hurricane Helene but \"hasn\'t been able to get him.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Caleb McCullough • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 29, 2024 in an Instagram post: “Video shows Kamala (Harris) responding to someone talking through her earrings that she allegedly wore during the Trump vs. Harris debate.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Elissa Slotkin stated on September 30, 2024 in a Meta ad: U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers “believes he should make that decision” about whether to end pregnancies. ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Caleb McCullough • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Tim Sheehy stated on September 27, 2024 in an ad: U.S. Sen. Jon Tester “voted to give taxpayer-funded health care to illegal immigrants.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Louis Jacobson • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 26, 2024 in an Instagram post: “Kamala involved in P-Diddy’s rapes and assaults.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Sofia Ahmed • September 30, 2024 Load more ### Support independent fact-checking. Become a member! In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts. 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The Build Back Better bill provides 'parole' amnesty for millions of criminal illegal aliens