‘What Are You Talking About?!’ CNN Debate on Immigration Goes Way Off the Rails as Panelists Drown Each Other Out

CNN’s Abby Phillip had to step in and try to focus a roller coaster immigration debate on NewsNight where the guests could barely be heard over one another.

On Tuesday’s NewsNight, former Texas congressional candidate Isaiah Martin took issue with Marc LoPresti, CEO of Market Rebellion, referring to the “open border policy” of former President Joe Biden, pressing him to “define” the actual policy he was referring to.

Phillip reported before the debate that thousands of people under TPS (temporary protective status) are now at risk of deportation after the Supreme Court recently ruled in President Donald Trump’s favor on the matter.

“Officials can now refer asylum seekers to immigration judges without a formal interview. It’s a change that could affect more than 450,000 cases and it effectively bypasses a step in the asylum process,” she said, adding that a “major operation” is reportedly underway to kick thousands of Haitans under TPS out of the country.

Haiti is currently under a Level 4 travel advisory, with the State Department warning Americans to stay clear of the country due to rampant crime.

LoPresti argued that officials may be going “too far” in some instances on deportations, but it’s only because of the “scope” of the problem, which he blamed Biden for.

“I think the issue, Abby, is that the scope of the problem with Biden’s open border policies, we did allow a lot of people that should not be here in an unprecedented scale to come into this country,” he said, adding, “What happens is when the pendulum swings in either direction, Abby, too far, the response is often commensurately too far.”

Martin then pressed him to define the actual Biden policy.

Check out the exchange below:

ISAIAH MARTIN: What is that open border policy? Can you define what that means?

MARC LOPRESTI: I can tell you that there were more than 3000 murders committed.

MARTIN: I’m asking you what is the open border policy? Can you define what that is? What is the policy?

LOPRESTI: Letting people flow over the border —

MARTIN: How did they let? There were still immigration officers. What are you talking about?! Define the policy.

LOPRESTI: They were instructed to allow those people to come into this country.

MARTIN: Define the policy though. Are you saying that immigration officers weren’t there along the southern border during the time that Biden was in office?

The two then got into heated and loud crosstalk as Phillip attempted to lower the temperature.

She said:

Hold on! I think we’re getting — we’re mixing a bunch of different issues at the same time, right? Because what we’re talking about today are specific groups of people, TPS holders are people who are here because they are fleeing a terrible situation in their home countries. Now, as we pointed out, the United States has a Level 4 travel advisory for Haiti. We are telling Americans don’t go there because of the risk of crime, kidnaping, terrorism, unrest, and limited health care. In the midst of that, the Trump administration has revoked status for TPS holders basically overnight, made those people ineligible to work, essentially made them illegal in this country, and is now saying, you got to go back to that country that you were fleeing from, even though the situation has not changed. So that is what we’re talking about.

Watch above via CNN.

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