WATCH: J.D. Vance Schools CBS News Host On the Border Crisis
Vice President J.D. Vance effortlessly brushed off attacks from CBS News host Margaret Brennan, who attempted to attack the Trump Administration over efforts to curb illegal immigration on Sunday’s episode of “Face The Nation.”
Brennan, who put on a shamelessly biased performance while serving as a moderator for the lone presidential debate between President Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris, pressed Vance on a number of immigration executive orders signed by the president. Some of the dozens of executive actions, including Trump’s order on birthright citizenship, have already faced legal challenges.
Senior administration officials have stated that legal challenges were expected and will speed up the process on getting cases to the U.S. Supreme Court. “A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan, I think you’d agree, has some conservative credentials, paused the order to end birthright citizenship, calling it blatantly unconstitutional. How do you reconcile this challenge to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution?” Brennan asked.
Vance began by reiterating that all of these issues will be litigated, adding that he obviously disagrees with the judge’s interpretation. “But here’s the basic idea of President Trump’s view on this. If you are a lawful permanent resident, or a legal immigrant who plans to stay, your children, of course, should become American citizens. But let’s say you’re the child of an ambassador; you don’t become an ambassador,” the vice president added.
Brennan then attempted to zero in on the specifics of Vance’s claim, ignoring the broader point he was making about the antiquated nature of birthright citizenship.
“But we’re saying that that carve out should apply to anybody who doesn’t plan to stay here. If you come here on vacation and you have a baby in an American hospital, that baby doesn’t become an American citizen. If you’re an illegal alien and you come here temporarily, hopefully your child does not become an elite American citizen by virtue of just having been born on American soil,” Vance went on to say,
“There’s a very basic principle in American immigration law that if you want to become an American citizen. and you’ve done it the right way, and the American people and their collective wisdom have welcomed you into our national community, then you become a citizen. But temporary residents people who come in here whether legally or illegally and don’t plan to stay their children should become American citizens I don’t know any country that does that.”
Brennan then repeated the simplistic “nation of immigrants” talking point, seemingly suggesting that America should be an economic zone rather than a nation. “This is a very unique country, and it was founded by some immigrants, but just because we were founded by immigrants doesn’t mean that 240 years later that we have to have the dumbest immigration policy in the world. No country says that temporary visitors, their children, will be given complete access to the benefits and blessings of American citizenship,” Vance shot back.
“America should actually look out for the interests of our citizens first and that means again if you’re here permanently and lawfully your kid becomes an American citizen. If you’re not here permanently, if you’re not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and don’t plan to be, why would we make those people’s children United States and don’t plan to be, why would we make those people’s children American citizens permanently?”
Elsewhere in the interview, Brennan defended the Biden Administration’s immigration policies, which saw more than 10 million illegal aliens and asylum seekers flood the country over four years. International asylum law requires asylum seekers to present themselves at the first secure port of entry, though the Biden Administration tossed this policy in the trash by allowing asylum seekers from Afghanistan, China, and various countries in the Middle East and North Africa, to claim asylum. Vetting is impossible if not severely limited for most of these countries, which led to nearly 400 individuals whose names appear on terror watchlists crossing the border during President Biden’s tenure.
This topic was touched on in Sunday’s “Face The Nation” interview.
“Well, Margaret, I don’t agree that all these immigrants or all these refugees have been properly vetted. In fact, we know that there are cases of people who allegedly were properly vetted and then were literally planning terrorist attacks on our country. That happened during the campaign, if you may remember. So clearly not all of these foreign nationals have been properly vetted,” Vance told Brennan.
The CBS News host then attempted to claim that refugees from Afghanistan — a country controlled by Islamic extremists — can be properly vetted. “But my primary concern as the vice president, Margaret, is to look after the American people. And now that we know that we have vetting problems with a lot of these refugee programs we absolutely cannot unleash thousands of unvetted people into our country, Vance replied, at which point Brennan smugly claimed that “these people are vetted.”
Vance replied by pointing to a recent terrorist attack that was thwarted in Oklahoma City, which was hatched by an Afghan national who was planning Election Day terrorist attacks. “I don’t want my children to share a neighborhood with people who are not properly vetted and because I don’t want it for my kids, I’m not going to force any other American citizen’s kids to do that either,” the vice president declared.
According to Brennan, who suggested that the suspect could have been radicalized in the U.S., the Oklahoma City incident was a “very particular case” that should not be considered. “I don’t really care, Margaret. I don’t want that person in my country and I think most Americans agree with me,” Vance shot back.