Fox’s Hegseth to Trump: Don’t Chain Yourself to ‘Framework’ Amnesty Plan

President Donald Trump should not use his State of the Union speech to embrace the immigration “framework” created by his deputies under pressure from Democratic Senators, says Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth wrote January 29:

The future of President Trump’s first term—and prospects for a second—hinge on the forthcoming immigration battle; so he shouldn’t say anything in Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address that locks him into a bad deal.

And that is what’s on the table now: a bad deal.

The problem spotlighted by Hegseth is the plan’s timeline — the amnesty for an official estimate of 1.8 million illegals comes first, but the wall and judicial approval of other reforms will only be decided later. Hegseth continues:

For conservatives who support this president and his policies, demanding that the timing be done right is the best way to ensure we do not get hoodwinked—yet again. We know we can trust President Trump; but we also know we cannot trust this Congress, future presidents, and the permanent government bureaucracies to implement the policies faithfully. To believe so would be sheer idiocy. Instead, demanding the right timing is the most fertile ground to fight on.

Tuesday night’s State of the Union is the right place to make this case—and the worst possible place to advance the current deal. All words matter, but words on this night matter even more. Trump supporters expect a wall, not amnesty. They will remember those details come 2018 and 2020. Cutting the wrong deal would mean they get all of the amnesty with little of the wall—a lose/lose outcome the president, and our country, cannot afford.

Pete Hegseth is a co-host of FOX & Friends Weekend, an Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, a Harvard graduate, the  CEO of Concerned Veterans for America and the author of “In The Arena.”

Read his entire column here.

Breitbart News has described the contents of the draft “framework” plan, explained the real polling numbers that allowed Trump to defeat all rivals in 2016, and has shown how the media hides the huge economic impact of immigration policies.