Elon Musk Totally obsessed with illegal immigration – not surprising since he is both a republican Also one of the richest people in the country. But you’d think he could stop spreading debunked conspiracy theories about President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, just so he wouldn’t look like a complete idiot.
“I bet you didn’t know this administration is using your tax dollars to fly hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into the United States…” Musk tweeted in the early hours of the morning. Friday.
Musk cited a tweet from Stephen Miller’s extremist anti-immigration group America First Laws, which wrote: “On January 5, 2023, President Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Antonio [sic] Mayorkas announced unprecedented new plans to allow 30,000 foreigners from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to fly into the country each month. “
The problem with Musk’s tweet is that it’s wrong in almost every way. Yes, the U.S. government has a program that allows people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the country. But this is far from unprecedented.The program is modeled after the exact same thing that allows Ukrainian refugees He came to the United States in early 2022 after the country was first invaded by Russia. But that’s far from the biggest lie in Musk’s tweet.
As PBS recently explained:
Immigrants must apply online, arrive at the airport and have a financial sponsor in the United States. If approved, they can stay in the United States for two years and obtain a work permit.
On its face, Musk’s description of these people as “illegal immigrants” is actually incorrect. What happened was not illegal.These immigrants were admitted under the explicit direction of the U.S. government, making them very legal refugees, in stark contrast to the immigration visa shenanigans Musk has engaged in 1990s. They are accepted into a two-year “parole” program, a wording that sometimes confuses people because Americans associate parole with prison release programs.These people have no path to citizenship through the parole program because Associated Press This is explained in a recent fact-check on virus claims.
But perhaps the most egregious lie in Musk’s tweet is that these people were flown in with U.S. taxpayer dollars. As several news articles over the past month have pointed out, this is simply not true.A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security told Voice of America Most recently, everyone in the program “must purchase a commercial airline ticket to fly to the U.S.,” adding that they will undergo a background check before arrival and be screened upon arrival in the U.S.
Again, at this point this has been documented in numerous articles, from CNN arrive public broadcaster arrive U.S. News & World Report.
As the Associated Press put it last month, highlighting our:
But immigrants don’t enter the United States randomly.Under the Biden policy, which takes effect in January 2023, up to 30,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela can enter the country each month If they apply online with a financial sponsor and arrive at a designated airport, they pay their own way. Biden exercised his “parole” power, which under a 1952 law allows him to admit people “only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public interest.”
Even a researcher at the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration think tank that was among the first to raise significant doubts about the plan, doesn’t consider the Biden administration’s efforts to be considered secret, telling The Associated Press last month It’s “mysterious” and doesn’t have enough transparency.
An intellectually honest debate about U.S. immigration policy is possible, but Musk is clearly not interested in such a conversation. The Biden administration launched the program for people arriving from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela as it wanted to provide a more orderly way for people to enter the country given the influx at border crossings over the past year.
Likewise, reasonable people may disagree on the details of U.S. immigration policy. But if people like Musk continue to spread debunked nonsense, no matter your politics, we won’t be able to have an honest conversation about this issue. As it stands, honest dialogue is impossible when Musk talks about immigration.