Any legal pathway allowing illegal aliens to permanently remain in the United States, and eventually obtain American citizenship, is amnesty, Center for Immigration Studies Policy Director Jessica Vaughan says.
Last week, President Trump told Telemundo his administration is working on a plan to give a “road to citizenship” for nearly 800,000 illegal aliens enrolled in former President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“I’m going to be doing an immigration bill,” Trump said. “One of the aspects of the bill that you will be very happy with, and that a lot of people will be, including me and a lot of Republicans, by the way, will be DACA. It gives them a road to citizenship.”
White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere told Breitbart News that Trump “is willing” to work with Congress to provide citizenship for DACA illegal aliens but claimed the plan would “not include amnesty.”
Over the weekend, Trump campaign adviser Mercedes Schlapp said the president would “provide support” to DACA illegal aliens. Schlapp confirmed her work on a number of “legalization” plans for DACA illegal aliens while working in the administration.
“When I was at the White House, we worked on several immigration proposals trying to get Democrats to come on board that would have included legalization for DACA recipients,” Schlapp said.
In an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Tonight, Vaughan said any plan providing legal status, including citizenship, to illegal aliens is amnesty.
LISTEN:
Vaughn said:
I do take issue with the White House spokesperson saying ‘It’s not an amnesty.’ Vaughan said. “Of course it’s an amnesty. Everybody knows it’s an amnesty. That’s the only way out of this for people with DACA. I don’t know why they feel like they have to keep pretending that it is not.”
“Any form of legal status for people who are here illegally, if they get a green card and are on the path to citizenship, that’s an amnesty,” Vaughan said. “Let’s just call it what it is if you’re going to do it.”
As Breitbart News has reported, a DACA amnesty would likely drive a flow of what is known as “chain migration” whereby newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S.
Newly naturalized citizens from Mexico, according to Princeton University researchers Stacie Carr and Marta Tienda, bring on average about six foreign relatives each to the U.S.
Should all 800,000 DACA illegal aliens sponsor six foreign relatives to come to the country, that would equate to a chain migration flow of nearly five million foreign nationals — a foreign population twice the size of Chicago, Illinois.
“A lot of the DACA family members are already here,” Vaughan said. “I think that with an amnesty, a lot of them will get status through chain migration if our system isn’t changed, specifically the unlimited category of parents.”
A DACA amnesty would put more citizen children of illegal aliens — commonly referred to as “anchor babies” — on federal welfare, as Breitbart News reported, while American taxpayers would be left potentially with a $26 billion bill.
Additionally, about one-in-five DACA illegal aliens, after an amnesty, would end up on food stamps, while at least one-in-seven would go on Medicaid.
At the southern border, a DACA amnesty has the potential to trigger a border surge that could triple the number of illegal aliens pouring through the border. Since DACA’s inception, more than 2,100 recipients of the program have been kicked off because they were found to either be criminals or gang members.
“There are more people with DACA who have criminal records than there are who are doctors,” Vaughan said.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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