During a recent vice presidential debate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) made the claim that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s mobile app for migrants at the southern border has “been on the books since 1990.” However, this claim is false. The “CBP One” mobile app was actually created by the Biden-Harris administration and facilitates a process that allows tens of thousands of migrants in Mexico to schedule an appointment at the border with hopes of being released into the United States interior.
During the debate, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance (R-OH), detailed how the CBP One mobile app works – essentially streamlining the parole pipeline despite the nation’s historical asylum process. Vance explained that the app allows migrants to apply for asylum or parole, and can be granted legal status at the wave of a proverbial “Kamala Harris open border wand.” He argued that this is not a traditional immigration process where individuals would apply for a green card and wait years to gain legal status; instead, it is a facilitation of illegal immigration by the Biden-Harris administration.
In response to these claims, Governor Walz argued that “Those laws have been on the books since 1990” to which Vance countered, “The CBP One app has not been on the books since 1990. It’s something that Kamala Harris created.” Indeed, the migrant mobile app was launched in January 2023, making Governor Walz’s claim about its existence since 1990 false.
Since the launch of the migrant mobile app, the Biden-Harris administration has welcomed approximately 813,000 migrants into the country. Those arriving via the app are primarily from Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, and Haiti.