How I Became a Sponsor
In early 2023, I read an article about Kyle Varner, a doctor in Spokane Washington who had sponsored over 40 Venezuelans through a humanitarian parole program and reached out to him via social media to find out more. When I commented on his post on Facebook, my messenger started flooding with messages from individuals and families in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua who were looking for sponsors through the new Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela (CHNV) humanitarian parole program. I met with Kyle virtually, learned the steps involved, and wanted to sponsor a few people. After exchanging messages with individuals online and not knowing any of them, I decided to sponsor four single women who were working hard in Venezuela, displayed resilience and focused on having a safer future. I added the mother of one of the four when I realized she would be all alone in Venezuela if her daughter left. For me, this was an opportunity to make a true commitment to immigrants after being an informal advocate for years.
That was going to be my sponsoring effort but then “E” (initial used since she still has family at risk in Venezuela) messaged and asked for help finding a sponsor. She shared how her husband had been a police officer but fled the country when the government ordered them to stop the protests, even if it meant injuries or death for the protestors. She shared how he had cancer while alone in the US and provided medical records. And she shared videos of her family volunteering at Christmas together for years to give gifts while they had also been struggling with food at times and sharing a house with multiple families. If anyone embodied the qualities that Turchin (2006) associates with moral exemplars, it was E. After praying and reflecting, I applied to sponsor E, her two children and her sister.
Building a Transnational Community
Over time, I applied to sponsor additional individuals through the CHNV humanitarian parole program, with each application reviewed and approved through the program’s standard process. I also became close friends with other humanitarian parole beneficiaries from Cuba and Venezuela.
Everyone was so stressed while waiting for the applications to be approved and at times, each person could have given up hope. But instead, we made a WhatsApp group where we went from being friends to a “framily” for life. The individuals I sponsored worked together to create videos and single page brochures to help other people in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to find sponsors. They worked hard to learn English online before arriving, researched the communities they wanted to move to and prepared to contribute meaningfully to their new communities.
Arrival and Integration
In September 2023, our world changed. All 17 applications were approved on the same day. I remember getting a call on WhatsApp and not understanding when one of the ladies was telling me to look on the USCIS site, everyone was coming to the US. The tears of joy that day turned into a rush for weeks to help find flights, answer school enrollment questions, feeling stress each time a family arrived and relieved when they made it through. We supported each other step by step. Each adult that I sponsored arrived with a proven capacity for sacrifice and cooperation that helped them become acclimated to the US fast. Today, every adult I sponsored is working and paying taxes, every child is in school or preschool and almost everyone now has a basic proficiency in English. I am proud of how each person and family has shown incredible resilience and continued to thrive, while contributing to our country.
Community Collaboration
Humanitarian parole sponsors have a support system through various nonprofit organizations and community networks, which made a difference for my sponsorship journey. Welcome.US had online training that potential sponsors could complete, which helped me to learn what to expect, how to stay organized as a sponsor and how to be supportive. This organization is a nonpartisan, nonprofit established in 2021 to coordinate support for refugees in the United States and has helped to resettle 800,000 refugees across all 50 states (Safian, 2025). I also created a Facebook group to bring together other CHNV sponsors and interested community members to share ideas, resources, successes, and challenges. This group continues to work together today to provide information for each other as sponsors.
Looking Ahead
My new “framily” does not know what the future will hold for each of them. Like many sponsors, I have been closely following national events that shape the broader environment humanitarian parole beneficiaries enter. As individuals, we cannot change the federal policies or the world, but we are in control of our personal actions each day and how we support each other, one person at a time.
Author
Sandra McAnany, Masters in Global Studies student, Gender and Public Policy Pathway. Research interest: International Migration Trends in the Western Hemisphere.
References
Safian, R. (2025, May 27). Welcome.US CEO Nazanin Ash on the value refugees bring to the economy
and corporate America. Fast Company.
Turchin, P. (2007). War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires (Reprint) [Paperback].
Penguin Random House. (Original work published 2005, Pi Press)
