CBS News debate moderator Margaret Brennan hammered Sen. J.D. Vance with a “fact check” suggesting that foreign nationals on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) are here legally, yet experts say that the moderator’s take doesn’t hold water.
During the vice presidential debate Tuesday night, Brennan — appearing to break a rule previously set by CBS that moderators would not fact check candidates — responded to Vance by appearing to suggest that those on TPS have legal status in the country and those who enter through the CBP One app also have a similar status. However, immigration experts that spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation say Brennan’s “fact check” was incorrect, noting that those who obtain TPS are not automatically granted legal status and inadmissible foreign nationals enter the U.S. via the CBP One app daily.
“CBS moderator Margaret Brennan was wrong in her ‘fact check’ regarding Haitian migrants,” Julie Kirchner, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), said to the DCNF, adding that most Haitian migrants who have entered the U.S. in the past four years have no legal status. “Haitians who enter the country illegally and then obtain temporary protected status are shielded from deportation, but receiving temporary protected status does not confer legal status.”
Kirchner — who previously worked in both Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) — explained that migrants who are actually in the U.S. legally would not need to be shielded from deportation to begin with, and being granted parole into the U.S. is not a lawful form of admission into the country.
“Finally, Haitians who cross the southern border illegally and claim asylum do not have, and will not get legal status, until their application for asylum is actually approved — which usually takes years, and, as the data show, happens in less than 5 percent of cases,” she said.
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Brennan’s exchange with Vance occurred after the senator had mentioned Springfield, Ohio, amid a larger point about the issues of illegal immigration and the effects mass immigration have on smaller cities like Springfield.
Springfield has remained in the national news following allegations that Haitian migrants in the town had been spotted butchering a pet animal for consumption. While those claims appear to have been without merit, the ensuing controversy has highlighted what locals say is a legitimate issue: mass migration into a town that does not have the infrastructure to withstand such a large influx of new residents.
“Just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, Temporary Protected Status,” Brennan said during the debate after Vance made a comment about illegal immigration and the issues that smaller cities like Springfield, Ohio, are dealing with in the wake of mass migration.
Vance immediately shot back with a response about the process involved with the CBP One app, which is an initiative that allows a large number of foreign nationals to apply daily for asylum.
“But 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,” the senator said. “So there’s an application called the CBP One app where you can go on as an illegal migrant, apply for asylum or apply for parole and be granted legal status at the wave of a Kamala Harris open border wand.”
“That is not a person coming in applying for a green card and waiting for 10 years — ” he said, before being interrupted by Brennan.
“Thank you, senator, for describing the legal process,” the CBS host said, eventually muting Vance’s mic as he tried to continue on with his point.
However, being granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) does not automatically mean you are given legal status in the country, and those who are paroled into the country via the CBP One app are largely inadmissible to begin with, according to immigration experts.
Art Arthur, a resident fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, likened those who enter via the CBP One app as very similar to anyone who would land at an international airport with no passport or visa.
“All those people who make appointments with the CBP One App have no right to be in the United States,” Arthur said to the DCNF. “They are essentially here illegally — they have no visas, they have no right to enter, yet they were paroled into the United States.”
“You can’t be paroled into the United States if you are admissible, you can only be paroled into the United States if you are inadmissible,” he continued.
CBP announced the creation of the CBP One app in October 2020, with the Biden-Harris administration expanding its use in January 2023. The app permits migrants to schedule appointments in order to obtain exemptions at ports of entry, and enables Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan nationals to submit biometric data to federal immigration authorities in order to apply for travel authorization and obtain parole.
The Biden-Harris administration is allowing 1,400 foreign nationals into the country daily through the CBP One app, according to Arthur. More than 95% of people who use the app end up getting released into the U.S. on parole and are then placed into removal proceedings.
“If you’re placed into removal proceedings with a Notice to Appear, you’re here illegally. That is the allegation that the government is making – you are removable from the United States,” Arthur said. “Brennan was just wrong.”
Roughly 2.5% of the Haitian population has entered the U.S. since January 2023, according to Arthur.
The city manager of Springfield delivered a letter in July to Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Tim Scott of South Carolina that pleaded for federal assistance. As many as 20,000 Haitian nationals have settled into the town in the last four years alone, resulting in a housing crisis that will leave Springfield unable to meet its housing needs unless help is provided, according to the manager’s letter.
With so many Haitian nationals in Springfield, it’s not entirely known how many are on TPS or who may have entered the U.S. via other means, according to Matt O’Brien, the investigations director for the Immigration Reform Law Institute.
“It’s unclear whether the majority of the recent cohort of Haitians in Springfield was given TPS, was granted parole, or was just waived into the U.S. – in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act – and given a notice to appear in Immigration Court years from now,” O’Brien stated to the DCNF.
“TPS demonstrates everything that’s wrong with our immigration system,” he added. “If you enter the U.S. illegally but get TPS, you get work authorization and you can travel outside the U.S. and return here – so, once you get TPS, for all intents and purposes, you get treated as if you were legal. But if the president revokes the TPS designation under which you were granted TPS, you go right back to being an illegal alien.”
CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/CNN/”CNN Special Event: Vice Presidential Debate Hosted by CBS”)
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