Fact Check: No, Trump’s Amnesty Would Not Be Limited to 1.8M Illegal Aliens

In his “State of the Union” (SOTU) address on Tuesday night, President Trump said his White House immigration plan would only include a pathway to U.S. citizenship for 1.8 million illegal aliens currently in the U.S.

Fact Check: MOSTLY FALSE

Trump stated in his SOTU remarks:

The first pillar of our framework generously offers a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents at a young age — that covers almost three times more people than the previous administration.  Under our plan, those who meet education and work requirements, and show good moral character, will be able to become full citizens of the United States. [Emphasis added]

As Breitbart News reported, a draft of the White House’s expansive amnesty plan obtained by Breitbart News reveals that the Trump administration would be expanding Obama’s federal, temporary amnesty—known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program—to six times the number of illegal aliens who are enrolled in the DACA.

Former Koch brothers executive Marc Short, who previously led the failed “Never Trump” effort inside the pro-mass immigration billionaires’ network, helped craft the White House amnesty plan, along with Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and senior adviser Stephen Miller.

The White House amnesty plan estimates that about 1.8 million illegal aliens will be eligible for a pathway to U.S. citizenship under their proposal. But, based on estimates from the 1986 amnesty, citizenship for 1.8 million illegal aliens would only be the starting point of the White House amnesty.

The 1986 amnesty was designed to give 400,000 illegal alien agricultural workers amnesty. After being enacted, though, about 1.1 million illegal aliens ended up getting amnesty, implying that 700,000 illegal aliens fraudulently received amnesty, as noted by the Center for Immigration Studies.Should this pattern be the same for the White House’s amnesty plan, the low estimate of 1.8 million illegal aliens receiving a pathway to U.S. citizenship will quickly and likely become 4.5 million illegal aliens eventually obtaining citizenship.

Currently, there are nearly 800,000 illegal aliens enrolled in Obama’s DACA program. The White House amnesty plan would potentially sextuple this number of illegal aliens receiving amnesty and a pathway to citizenship.

Likewise, as Breitbart News reported, it is plausible for the White House plan to become entirely open-ended and thus never-ending, much like the 1986 amnesty, critics and experts say.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.