Vance says he will continue to call Haitian migrants ‘illegal immigrants’ despite their legal status

Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance on Thursday stood by his earlier comments in which he called Haitian migrants who came to the U.S. under the Biden-era parole program or who are protected from deportation “illegal immigrants” — amid the ongoing debate over migration to the U.S.

During a campaign event, Vance was asked why he referred to Haitian migrants in cities like Springfield, Ohio, as “illegal immigrants” when many of them came to the country under the Cuban-Haitian-Nicaraguan-Venezuelan (CHNV) parole program or are protected from deportation under Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

“The media loves to say that Haitian migrants — hundreds of thousands, by the way, 20,000 in Springfield, but hundreds of thousands nationwide — are here legally.”

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“And what they mean is that Kamala Harris used two separate programs, mass parole and temporary protected status. She used two programs to wave a wand and say we’re not going to deport these people here,” he said. “Well, if Kamala Harris waves a wand illegally and says these people are here legally now, I’m still going to call them illegal immigrants. Kamala Harris doing something illegal doesn’t make any immigrant legal. That’s not how it works.”

In 2023, the Department of Homeland Security expanded CHNV parole procedures to allow up to 30,000 migrants from those four countries to enter the U.S. per month if they pass background checks and already have a support person in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration revised and expanded TPS for Haiti last year, offering deportation protection and work permits to hundreds of thousands of Haitians — even those in the country illegally.

Republicans have opposed the Biden administration’s use of parole programs, both the CHNV program and the use of the CBP One app at border crossings to allow 1,450 migrants a day on parole. They argue that Congress has limited the use of parole to “case-by-case” situations for urgent humanitarian reasons or a substantial public benefit, and that using parole in such large numbers violates that. Republican states sued the CHNV program this year but lost in court.

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“These processes — a safe and orderly way to get to the United States — have led to a significant reduction in the number of these individuals encountered at our southern border,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement earlier this year when the decision was made. “This is a key part of our efforts to address the unprecedented levels of migration across our hemisphere, and other countries around the world are looking to this as a model for how to address the challenge of increased illegal migration they are experiencing as well.”

Authorities say the use of parole programs encourages legal immigration and has resulted in a significant decline in illegal border crossings by citizens of these countries.

“All CHNV beneficiaries continue to be thoroughly screened and vetted by CBP prior to arrival in the United States and must meet other eligibility criteria to be permitted to travel to the United States in a safe, orderly, and lawful manner after purchasing their own airline tickets,” Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a statement Monday.

“Since DHS implemented these safe, orderly, and lawful procedures, CHNV citizen encounters between POEs have decreased by 99%,” the statement reads.

But the debate has come back into focus in recent days amid the influx of Haitian migrants into small towns like Springfield, Ohio. Both Vance and former President Trump have repeated baseless claims that Haitians in Springfield are eating the pets of people living there.

As the debate has continued and spawned a slew of memes, it has led to increased attention on the use of parole. The administration recently announced that more than 1.3 million migrants have been admitted using the CBP One app. While critics have pointed out that many migrants are not here illegally because they are on parole, Vance has opposed it.

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“What is fundamentally illegal is Kamala Harris saying we are going to grant parole not on a case-by-case basis, but to the millions of illegal immigrants who come into this country. That doesn’t magically make them legal,” he said.

Harris’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Vance also criticized the administration’s use of TPS. The Trump administration has tried to end the use of TPS by many nationalities, including Haitians.

Vance described TPS as “a government edict saying you can no longer deport people.”

The comments underscore how the immigration debate has spread beyond the southern border, where immigration numbers have plummeted in recent months following President Biden’s executive order restricting U.S. arrivals.

Former President Trump recently said he would “immediately end the migrant invasion of America.”

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“We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, shut down the Kamala phone app used to smuggle illegal immigrants (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return illegal migrants from Kamala to their home countries (so-called remigration),” he said.

Sophia Compton of Fox News contributed to this report.