The revelation that the Biden administration secretly flew 320,000 illegal immigrants into the country is further proof of an invasion deliberately designed by Democrats, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Newsmax on Tuesday.
A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) discovered Biden's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) approved secretive flights that in 2023 transported hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from foreign airports into 43 American airports, all pre-approved using the CBP One cellphone app.
CBP said on its website the app was designed to schedule appointments at land ports of entry and has increased its capacity to "process migrants more efficiently and orderly while cutting out unscrupulous smugglers who endanger and profit from vulnerable migrants."
"It really is astonishing," Cruz told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "They're doing it secretly. They flew them in to 43 [U.S.] airports. They will not answer what airports they're sending them into. We know the number, 43. The only reason this is public is that they were sued under the Freedom of Information Act, and they handed over this information in that lawsuit, but the Biden White House hasn't told the American people who it has brought in. It hasn't told them which airports. It claims that identifying the airports that it's flying illegal immigrants into would somehow undermine national security, which is really ridiculous.
"This is an invasion. It is deliberate. It is designed by Democrats. It is designed by the Biden White House because they look at, all told, that 10.4 million illegal immigrants who have come into this country, they look at them as future Democrat voters, and they're going so far as literally to fly them to foreign countries to get them here."
The CIS said the countries whose citizens were eligible to come to the U.S. through the CBP One app were Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, and Ecuador. Cruz noted Jose Ibarra, the suspect in the killing of Augusta University student Laken Riley, 22, in Georgia last month, was an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
"The Venezuelan illegal immigrant who murdered Laken Riley, we don't know if Joe Biden literally flew him in from Venezuela," Cruz said. "We do know that once he was in custody in El Paso [Texas] that the Biden administration paroled him into the population, released him. Had they instead sent him home to Venezuela, Laken Riley would be alive. We also know that [Ibarra] then went to New York City, was arrested again for endangering the safety of a child. But because New York City is a sanctuary city, they let him go again. Had they put him in jail in New York, Laken Riley would be alive.
"It is literally so absurd that the Biden White House won't answer whether they paid to fly Laken Riley's murderer into America."
Cruz said if the Biden administration were so proud of what it was doing, it would be willing to answer questions about the program.
"If it were not for this lawsuit, nobody would know about it," Cruz said. "They haven't told Congress about it. You don't see [press secretary] Karine Jean-Pierre at the White House talking about it. You didn't see Joe Biden at the State of the Union saying, we're flying 320,000 illegal immigrants into America."
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
- Find Newsmax channel in your home via cable and satellite systems – More Info Here
- Watch Newsmax+ on your home TV app or smartphone and watch it anywhere! Try it for FREE -- See More Here: NewsmaxPlus.com
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.