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Fact Check: CNN Host Bungles Illegal Immigration Claim

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  April 10, 2025 2:01 PM

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett isn't just a loudmouth, attention-addicted showboat who makes fun of other people's disabilities and hurls racial smears at other people's marriages.  She's also a political extremist and uninformed ignoramus.  In that sense, she's multi-dimensional.  In one of her endless television appearances last month, she offered an assertion to MSNBC's audience about illegal immigration that was factually incorrect.  She insisted that entering the United States of America illegally is not a criminal offense.  She said this with great conviction, practically oozing a sense of exasperation with any benighted fools who aren't as enlightened as she is on the subject.  

Perhaps I'm exaggerating, so I invite you to be the judge:


This confident claim is false.  It is, in fact, a criminal offense to enter US soil unlawfully.  Doing so more than once becomes a felony.  Overstaying a visa is a civil offense (perhaps that needs to change), but that is different than 'entering the country illegally,' which is indeed a crime.  It's true that many Democrats want illegal immigration to be decriminalized and turned into a civil offense.  During the 2020 presidential cycle, many of Team Blue's presidential aspirants went on national television and endorsed decriminalization, in addition to offering taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants (an insane policy that is contributing to California's economic mess): 


Embracing this proposed change is reckless and radical, in my view, but it would constitute a change -- because contrary to what Crockett said on camera, illegal entry into America is a criminal act.  Apparently CNN's Abby Phillip is similarly misinformed, spreading this falsehood on her program during an exchange with Scott Jennings.  She seems to think she's fact-checking him when she's the one who's wrong:


Perhaps Ms. Phillip, like Ms. Crockett, would prefer that illegal immigration be downgraded to a non-criminal offense, but that's not what the law says.  Finally, on the subject of unlawful immigration, I'll leave you with this:

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