The moderators of the vice presidential debate between Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) broke their own rules Tuesday night and Vance made them pay. In the process, he exposed how the Biden-Harris administration is purposefully dismantling the dividing line between legal and illegal immigration.
CBS News announced before the debate that their moderators, Margaret Brennan and Nora O’Donnell, would not fact-check the candidates during the debate but would “facilitate opportunities” for the candidates themselves to fact-check each other.
But they did not do this when it was most needed. After Vance detailed how President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris “brought in millions of illegal immigrants,” some of whom are overwhelming schools and hospitals and driving up housing prices, Brennan jumped in to editorialize, asserting, “Just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status — temporary protected status.”
Vance responded, “Margaret, the rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check, and since you’re fact-checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on.” He then gave a detailed and accurate explanation of how Biden and Harris created a smartphone app called the CBP One app that lets illegal immigrants fly into the United States and receive temporary “parole” status that expires in two years.
“That is the facilitation of illegal immigration, Margaret,” Vance explained, “by our own leadership. And Kamala Harris opened up that pathway.” Instead of allowing Walz to respond, Brennan cut Vance’s microphone and moved on to the next question.
This was unethical journalistic malpractice. She falsely or misleadingly fact-checked the Republican’s comments and then, instead of facilitating a proper airing of the issue, silenced the candidate who was making them and the Democrat look ignorant and dishonest.
Vance was right. The Biden-Harris administration has abused parole authority to create a shadow system alongside the congressionally approved legal system. There is nothing in statute that gives a president power to mass-parole 30,000 immigrants a month into the U.S.
The parole statute allows parole only for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit,” and only on a case-by-case basis, and it prescribes that “when the purposes of such parole shall have been served,” the immigrant shall be returned to custody for deportation. So an immigrant suffering from dehydration could be paroled into the country for medical care, for example, but after treatment should be dealt with like any other illegal immigrant.
This was never intended to be a new “legal pathway” as Biden and Harris have made it.
Brennan is right that many Haitians in Springfield have been granted temporary protected status, but that does not make them legal immigrants. The only reason an immigrant would need temporary protected status is because they entered the U.S. illegally and needed protection from deportation. Furthermore, temporary protected status designations are backward looking. Biden last granted temporary protected status to Haitians in the country in June. Haitians who have illegally entered since June do not qualify, and even those who do will become eligible for deportation again once their temporary protected status designation expires.
Should the executive branch abuse humanitarian protections in the immigration code to create a parallel quasi-legal system to import millions of otherwise illegal immigrants into the country every year, overwhelming schools and hospitals and driving up the price of housing? Of course not.
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But that is what Biden and Harris have done. According to all polls, the public is tired of it. People want less immigration, not more. At a minimum, Brennan should have let Walz defend the parole programs responsible for the percentage of foreign-born people in America being higher than ever before and growing faster than ever before.
There are benefits to immigration, especially high-skilled immigration. But there are also costs, especially from the low-skill immigration that has exploded under Biden-Harris. Voters deserve a debate about the costs and benefits. CBS News would not allow it.