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How humanitarian parole programs help migrant families in crisis

Through her work as a humanitarian parole sponsor, Sandra McAnany has helped uplift more than a dozen Latin American migrants and changed lives in the process.

Sandra visiting E’s family in Georgia (2023)

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Sandra McAnany isn’t one to sit on the sidelines. A 58-year-old grandmother from Wisconsin, McAnany spends her days teaching soft skills classes to adults and spending time with her family. Outside the classroom, however, she’s taken on a role that’s helping people in a big way: serving as a humanitarian parole sponsor and personally taking on the financial responsibility of supporting families fleeing from persecution, violence, and instability.

Since 2023, McAnany has welcomed 17 migrants—11 adults and six children through the CHNV humanitarian parole program, which allows individuals and families from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to live and work temporarily in the United States with the support of an approved sponsor.

“Everyone has their own views and perspectives, but every person I sponsored is thriving and doing well here,” McAnany said.

McAnany didn’t know any of the parolees before sponsoring them, but she had a commitment to helping families from Venezuela specifically, hoping to reunite them with their families who were already living in the United States. After “praying a lot along the way” and communicating with the applicants through WhatsApp, she decided to apply as a sponsor and help them settle into the United States.

“I have a bedroom and a bathroom in my basement,” McAnany says. “My door is open and will always be open for any of the people I sponsored, if they ever have a need for housing.”

Sandra’s granddaughter, E’s daughter, and another friend at an indoor park (July 2025)

At the time, McAnany decided to volunteer as a sponsor to make friends and help other people through hardship. Now, her mission has grown: Seeing how humanitarian parole programs have changed her parole beneficiaries’ lives—as well as her own—for the better.

Humanitarian parole: A long history

Humanitarian parole programs are nothing new. Since 1952, both Democratic and Republican administrations have used humanitarian parole to provide a safer, lawful pathway for noncitizens to enter and live temporarily in the United States. In recent years, through different programs, people from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti, and other countries have been able to come to the U.S. to escape urgent crises in their own countries, such as political instability or war.

Coming to the United States through humanitarian parole is no easy feat. The process has its own strict criteria and involves extensive applications and vetting for both beneficiaries and their sponsors. Parolees don’t need to qualify for any other immigration benefit like asylum, but they need to meet the standard for humanitarian parole and successfully pass vetting requirements.

According to Refugees International, 532,000 people have been granted parole through the CHNV program.

A life-changing experience

From the moment she met her first parole beneficiaries at the airport—two families —McAnany already knew it would be a life-changing experience. “It immediately felt like family, like we were lifelong friends,” she said. But she could also sense that it was a culture shock for the parolees. On the way home from the airport, McAnany pulled into a nearby McDonald's and encouraged them to order dinner. Hearing the word “Big Mac,” the families smiled in recognition.

Despite the culture shock, McAnany’s parole beneficiaries had to adapt quickly to life in the United States. Once they were settled, McAnany worked “nonstop” to help the families acclimate to their new lives, answering questions about school and vaccinations while also helping them create resumes, search for jobs, and find English classes online.

It was through this process that McAnany realized just how resilient people could be, and was amazed “not only how hard it was for individuals to leave their loved ones behind, but the amount of work they did to come to the country and remain here.” McAnany also realized how fortunate she was to have her own family living nearby. “I can’t imagine any one of us leaving a country and being apart for an unknown length of time,” she said.

Eventually, and as circumstances changed—one of the parolees found a new job in another city, for example, and was able to move out. But no matter the length of time they spent with each other, McAnany says that with every parolee they formed a bond built for life. One woman, who she refers to as ‘E,’ has even become “like an adopted daughter.” McAnany has traveled to Georgia, where E now lives, three times to visit her.

Uncertain ground: What’s next for humanitarian parole programs

Despite being a critical part of immigration policy in the United States for the last 73 years, humanitarian parole programs are under threat. Immigrant justice nonprofits Justice Action Center and Human Rights First are currently suing the federal government to protect humanitarian parole programs and allow parole beneficiaries to remain in the country for the duration of their parole. McAnany is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

One of the ladies Sandra sponsored from Venezuela and her partner during Sandra’s first visit to meet her (December 2023)

Participating in the lawsuit has only further bolstered McAnany’s belief in and support for humanitarian parole programs. She hopes the lawsuit will be successful, she says, so that parole beneficiaries and their families can finally have some stability.

“We don’t know what the future is,” she says, “but I want to be optimistic and hopeful that every person I sponsored will be able to stay here safely in the U.S. and continue to thrive.”

This article is part of Upworthy’s “The Threads Between U.S.” series that highlights what we have in common thanks to the generous support from the Levi Strauss Foundation, whose grantmaking is committed to creating a culture of belonging.


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Education

I taught preschool in a migrant town. Here is the number one myth I wish people understood.

We spent weeks looking for help for a young child who was in pain.

Photo credit: Canva

I taught preschool in a migrant town. There's one myth that needs to end.

It seems that around every election season we hear about undocumented immigrants and how they're simultaneously stealing our jobs and collecting government benefits. This idea is common in farming communities and the surrounding areas since these communities tend to be rural with scarce job opportunities and poor wages. It's a phrase I heard most of my adult life and that I eventually learned was simply a myth to garner votes or support for certain policies.

For a few years, I taught "More at 4," a preschool program for low-income families in a small town in North Carolina. The town is full of fields with rows of crops growing everything from tobacco to strawberries. Old school busses packed with watermelons and trucks sprinkling tobacco leaves on the two-lane highway was the norm to see on my sleepy drive to work. Agricultural communities are usually heavily populated with migrant farm workers and their families.

immigration; undocumented immigrants; migrant workers; illegal immigrants; illegal aliens; illegal immigrants Medicaid Leafy harvest: Tobacco leaves hang to dry.Photo credit: Canva

Every spring and summer, the fields were lined with men and women picking fruit and vegetables with a speed that would rival a Marvel superhero. Every fall, my classroom would fill with adorable brown faces who would giggle at my Spanish when I clumsily told them to wash their hands. It always came out sounding more like a spell from Harry Potter than a directive in a language I didn't speak. Jedi was one of those students, a 4-year-old who was usually full of smiles until she wasn't.

My assistant teacher and I noticed a few months into the school year that Jedi was not as talkative and starting to sit by herself. This little girl loved to chat and play in the dramatic play area, pretending to be the mom while directing other kids in Spanish. Sitting alone was unusual for her, and we quickly realized that it was more than an upset stomach when she started crying every time it was time to eat. The language barrier made calling her mother tricky, but with the help of one of our bilingual students we made it work and quickly learned upsetting health news.

immigration; undocumented immigrants; migrant workers; illegal immigrants; illegal aliens; illegal immigrants Medicaid Children learning the alphabet with teachers.Photo credit: Canva

Most of Jedi's molars were rotting and broken. Her mother explained through our 4-year-old translator and the Google Translate app that the little girl's teeth had been hurting for some time. She had been giving her over-the-counter pain medication in the morning, hoping it would get her through the day. That worked for a while, but the cavities got worse over the months.

Since our program was for low-income families, nearly every child had Medicaid, so at first we didn't understand why this sweet girl hadn't seen a dentist. It was during that conversation that we learned the children of migrant workers don't qualify for Medicaid or any other federal government assistance. Jedi didn't have a social security number and her birth certificate was from Guatemala. In order to receive Medicaid, which would've fixed her broken, infected teeth, she needed to be a U.S. citizen.

immigration; undocumented immigrants; migrant workers; illegal immigrants; illegal aliens; illegal immigrants Medicaid Child upset in colorful classroom.Photo credit: Canva

I watched helplessly as the girl's mother cried, explaining to a child no older than her own—who then translated the message to me—that they didn't know what to do. We promised to find a way to help the family and went to work. That afternoon, during regular pick up, Jedi's father came to the door with cash in hand. He was covered in sweat and dirt from the field. The worried dad explained that he didn't have a lot of money but could pay to help his daughter. After a brief back and forth with the translator app, he put his money away and left.

My assistant and I worked for a couple of weeks calling government agencies, angrily telling them it wasn't fair that they wouldn't help. She was just four years old and we were having to feed her applesauce, pudding, and yogurt because she couldn't chew. We called every agency we could think of and then went down the list of every dentist in town. We explained the situation over and over, hoping someone would do something.

immigration; undocumented immigrants; migrant workers; illegal immigrants; illegal aliens; illegal immigrants Medicaid Little one's big feelings on display.Photo credit: Canva

Just when we were about to give up, we found a children's dentist who agreed to evaluate her teeth. He determined that her teeth were infected, several needed to be capped, and a couple of the broken ones needed to be pulled. This amazing dentist made sure she left with antibiotics and an appointment that same week to start the work. The dad was able to pay him with cash on a weekly basis until it was paid off, and Jedi got her smile back.

Her first days back at school were like show-and-tell. She would take bites of food and then break into a wide grin while showing off her silver caps. That sweet girl would never know the hours we spent on the phone or the anguish her parents went through while trying to get her care. At the time, Jedi's mother was pregnant with what turned out to be a baby sister, also without care.

immigration; undocumented immigrants; migrant workers; illegal immigrants; illegal aliens; illegal immigrants Medicaid Young patient getting a dental check-up.Photo credit: Canva

While some states have expanded their Medicaid to include undocumented children and pregnant people, federally they're not covered, according to Healthinsurance.org. Currently there are only six states that expand state-funded Medicaid to undocumented people and 14 states that expand it to undocumented children who live in families that meet the income requirement. But even in the states that offer some form of state-funded Medicaid to undocumented individuals, the restrictions include income, and in some states, age.

In Illinois and New York, the only undocumented people that qualify for state-funded Medicaid are those under the age of 18 and those over the age of 65, though in New York undocumented pregnant people are also eligible. Washington state has an enrollment cap for undocumented individuals over 18 while California, Oregon, and Minnesota have no restrictions outside of income.

This means that the vast majority of undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive government benefits. Immigrants who are in the U.S. lawfully are eligible for benefits under certain circumstances.

immigration; undocumented immigrants; migrant workers; illegal immigrants; illegal aliens; illegal immigrants Medicaid Pregnant woman cradling bellyPhoto credit: Canva

According to KFF, "In general, in addition to meeting other eligibility requirements, lawfully present immigrants must have a 'qualified' immigration status to be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP (Table 1), and many, including most lawful permanent residents or 'green card' holders, must wait five years after obtaining qualified status before they may enroll. They may enroll in Marketplace coverage and receive subsidies during this five-year waiting period."

"Some immigrants with qualified status, such as refugees and asylees, as well as citizens of Compact of Free Association (COFA) nations, do not have to wait five years before enrolling. Some immigrants, such as those with temporary protected status, are lawfully present but do not have a qualified status and are not eligible to enroll regardless of their length of time in the country. Individuals with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status are not eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, and implementation of a Marketplace coverage expansion for them remains subject to ongoing litigation," KFF adds.

While there is often concern around undocumented people getting more benefits than the average struggling American citizen, it simply isn't true. It's a myth meant to evoke feelings of scarcity and unfairness to sway people to support policies they may otherwise feel uncomfortable with.

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Unique visualization of the wealth gap shows what your salary looks like stacked in $5 bills

This eye-opening visualization makes income inequality impossible to ignore.

Greg Sullivan

These stacks are easy enough to grasp, but the two in the back will blow your mind.

There comes a point in many conversations when numbers all just start to lose meaning. The nearest star is, however, many gazillion miles away. The national debt is, however, many tens of trillions of dollars. None of it really makes sense.

We can't really understand numbers at this scale, which is a problem because numbers matter when it comes to things like policy decisions and economic justice. If we can't truly understand the scale of an issue like income inequality, how can we even begin to address it? And income inequality is an issue that needs to be addressed.

The value of a stack of fives

A stack of five dollar bills worth $1,000. At just under an inch tall, a thousand dollars in fives is pretty easy to get your head around. Greg Sullivan

A five-dollar bill is still enough to buy a cup of coffee in most places. Stack 200 of them together, and you have a thousand dollars, which is just under an inch tall. That will be our basic unit of measurement as we climb the economic ladder. It's something tangible that we can understand easily.

Minimum wage: barely scraping by

The federal minimum wage in early 2025 is $7.25 an hour. Someone working full-time at this rate earns $15,080 a year—a stack of fives about 13 inches tall. This number hasn't changed since 2009, and in inflation-adjusted buying power, it's the lowest it has been in 66 years.

The wealth gap visualized in stacks of $5 bills Greg Sullivan/Upworthy

A two-adult household working full-time at minimum wage earns $30,160, which is just above the poverty line of $24,860—a stack of about 21 inches. People living at this level will struggle to get the basic necessities of life, and even a minor setback can be devastating.

The median full-time worker: financial stability with limits

$57,000 stacked in fives is 4 feet tall.The median American worker earns a stack of fives about 4 feet tall. Find a hard hat!Greg Sullivan

The median annual income in the united states was, as of 2024, about $57,000. This translates to a stack of five-dollar bills just over four feet tall. Depending on where a person lives, they can get by pretty comfortably, but things are still financially precarious. Good luck saving up or surviving a layoff.

Interestingly, this stack of fives is tall enough that, according to OSHA guidelines, you should wear safety gear when working here.

High earners: entering serious money

Towering 19 feet up, a quarter million dollars is a lot of money.At $250,000 a year, this stack is enough to endure most of life's typical challenges. Greg Sullivan

Hitting an annual income of $250,000 puts you in the “high earner” category. That’s an 18-foot stack of fives—taller than a two-story house.

Among the fun ways you might get yourself a stack like this are being a drone light-show operator, a high-end stylist, or maybe playing on an NFL team’s practice squad. That’s right… the practice squad will get you about $250,000 a year. Nice work if you can get it!

A millionaire’s earnings: wealth that withstands crises

A million stacked in fives is over 70 feet tall.Getting to the top of a million dollars worth of fives is the sort of problem you can solve if you earn this much. Greg Sullivan

A quarter-million dollars is a lot of money, but it's never been the ultimate dream. After all, the show wasn't called Who Wants to Be a Quarter Millionaire. For generations, a million dollars has held a mythical status. But if you had won that prize on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’s first season in 1999, today it would be worth only about $550,000 after adjusting for inflation.

A million dollars in five-dollar bills would stack up to about 72 feet. At this level, financial setbacks aren’t life-ruining. If you're taking home this much money a year, inflation or not, you probably live a very enviable life.

A billionaire: money beyond comprehension

A club of billionaires standing atop their wealth. Much like climbing Mount Everest, being a billionaire was something very few people had ever done. Now it's nearly common. Greg Sullivan

A new class of Americans is emerging, and people are starting to take notice. These individuals haven’t just achieved the American Dream of a million dollars, they’ve surpassed it by over a thousand times.

A billion dollars stacked in $5 bills would reach 13.5 miles into the sky, towering higher than Mt. Everest.

In 1916, John D. Rockefeller became the first billionaire in U.S. history. Today, there are 737 billionaires in the country. In the past four years alone, 123 more have joined their ranks, that’s one every 12 days.

Elon Musk: wealth at an astronomical scale

Musk's net worth stacked in fives would exceed 5,200 miles. The view from the top of Elon Musk's stack of money would be literally out of this world. Greg Sullivan

Elon Musk is the richest man in the U.S., with a net worth of about $384 billion as of March 2025—though that number fluctuates depending on when and how you measure it. Stacked in $5 bills, his fortune would soar more than 5,220 miles into the sky. To put that in perspective, his net worth has almost certainly shifted by more than you'll earn in a lifetime in just the time it took you to read this sentence.

If he jumped from the top of his theoretical money stack, he’d fall past the entire GDP of Vermont in just three minutes—assuming he didn’t burn up on reentry or drift into orbit. His fortune towers so high that the International Space Station would orbit far below him. Only the Apollo astronauts have ever been higher.

Why these numbers matter

These towering stacks of money are just a visualization, but they highlight the extreme differences in wealth. When the gap is this wide, it affects everything—economic policy, opportunity, and quality of life for millions.

If we want to address inequality, we first need to understand its scale. Because only when we see the differences clearly can we even begin to close the gap.

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Fired National Park Education Ranger shares heartbreaking post on losing his 'dream job'

"Share this truth widely."

via Brian Gibbs/Facebook

Brian Gibbs and son at Effigy Mounds National Monument.

On Friday, February 14th, Brian Gibbs, a National Park Ranger at Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa, learned he was terminated as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) move to decrease the federal workforce. Gibbs was one of thousands of federal probationary workers terminated that day. Officials have targeted probationary workers employed for less than one or two years because they have fewer job protections or rights to appeal.

While working at Effigy, Gibbs’ job was to educate children, from kindergarten through high school, about more than a dozen American Indian tribes associated with the park. “My job was to teach people about the sacredness of this site, and people … who built the mounds and tribes and still continue to come to the park,” he told CNN.

The reason for his termination felt strange to Gibbs, who says that he exceeded expectations in his most recent evaluation. “According to the letter I received, I ‘failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment’ because my ‘subject matter, knowledge, skills and abilities do not meet the department’s needs,’” Gibbs told Today.com. Now that he is unemployed, Gibbs’ big concern is for his family. He and his wife have one child, and are expecting another in the summer.

In the wake of the mass federal layoffs of over 77,000 people, Gibbs bravely put a face to the story by making a heartbreaking post about losing his job and the National Park Rangers' importance in American life.

“I am absolutely heartbroken and completely devastated to have lost my dream job of an Education Park Ranger with the National Park Service this Valentine’s Day,” Gibbs wrote in his post. “Access to my government email was denied mid-afternoon and my position was ripped out from out under my feet after my shift was over at 3:45pm on a cold snowy Friday. Additionally, before I could fully print off my government records, I was also locked out of my electronic personal file that contained my secure professional records.”

Gibbs then listed a litany of roles he assumed as a ranger, father, and American citizen.

"I am an oath of office to defend and protect the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic... I am the protector of 2500 year old American Indian burial and ceremonial mounds... I am the one who told your child that they belong on this planet. That their unique gifts and existence matters ... I am the lesson that showed your children that we live in a world of gifts- not commodities, that gratitude and reciprocity are the doorway to true abundance, not power, money, or fear," Gibbs wrote.

To raise money for his family during a time of need, Gibbs has partnered with Des Moines-based Raygun to create three shirts honoring those who work for the National Parks Service. Two of the shirts quote his viral post, "Gratitude and reciprocity are the doorway to true abundance, not power, money, or fear." A third shirt has a Ranger hat with the quote: "DON'T TREAD ON ME."


national parks, brian gibbs shirt, raygunRaygun x Brian Gobbs shirts.via Raygun


It’s disheartening to see a man lose the job that he loved so much. But Gibbs's brave post, which appealed to America's better angels, was a wonderful way to humanize the thousands of federal workers who have lost their jobs and the countless who will in the coming months. It can be hard to empathize with federal employees when they’re in offices we’ve never seen or states we’ll never visit. But America’s National Parks are the undisputed gems that make America great, and when those who work to protect them are under threat, it’s a call for all Americans to take notice.

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