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Sen. Ted Cruz used his podcast last week to present his listeners with a scary sounding tale. To hear the Texas Republican tell it, the Biden administration “chartered flights” in order to “import 320,000 illegal aliens” into the United States.
As the senator probably realized, the claims were wildly misleading, but that didn’t stop Cruz from sending out a fundraising appeal this week, under a “Biden is flying illegals into America” subject line. The message to donors read in part:
“The Biden administration’s ‘solution’ to decrease crossings at our southern border was to put 320,000 illegal immigrants on secret flights into cities across America! You can’t make this stuff up.”
That final line — “You can’t make this stuff up” — was of particular interest because, as it turns out, the GOP senator was making stuff up.
Right off the bat, while Cruz would have people believe we’re talking about undocumented immigrants, the truth, as an Associated Press report recently explained, is far more benign. The Biden administration created a “humanitarian parole” program that allows Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to stay in the U.S. for two years, but participants — who have legal permission to be here — must apply online with a financial sponsor, and they must be screened, vetted, and authorized for travel.
As for the idea that these are “secret flights,” in reality, there’s nothing secret about any of this: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has promoted the program and publicly disclosed the details on the agency’s website. Cruz and other Republicans have thrown fits, not because of “secret” data, but because of publicly available information the Biden administration has put online.
The Texas senator also referenced the Biden administration’s “chartered flights,” without noting that participants in the program are responsible for paying their own way, so American taxpayers aren’t on the hook for the costs.
Just as notably, while the Republican claimed the president is "importing" people, and "putting" migrants on planes, a New York Times report noted, the migrants in question are required to arrange for their own travel on commercial flights.
Or put another way, while Cruz marveled to supporters that the program is so outlandish that “you can’t make this stuff up,” he managed to get pretty much every relevant detail wrong.
The Republican incumbent — who’s facing a credible challenge in the Lone Star State this year — has already earned a reputation as one of Congress’ most reckless purveyors of misinformation. If Cruz hopes to shake that reputation, he’s going in the wrong direction.