Defending Trump's anti-immigrant public charge rule, Fox's Ainsley Earhardt suggests people using public services don't contribute to society
Pete Hegseth: “If you show a pattern of dependency, why would we want you to become a permanent resident or a citizen?”
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From the August 14 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
PETE HEGSETH (GUEST CO-HOST): Another big story is a rule change the Trump administration made in the last couple of days to how folks qualify to receive a green card. If you're here permanently, in that process, they effectively said you can't be spending 12 months out of 36 months receiving federal benefits, otherwise, that will hold you back from getting a pathway to citizenship.
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Well, hold your horses, two counties out in California say that is not right. And so they are suing the administration, which denies green cards to immigrants who are deemed likely to rely on welfare. But the president is doubling down.
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HEGSETH: Listen, it's common sense, if you're a taxpayer, you want to know your dollars are going to people who, if they're here, are doing so productively. If you show a pattern of dependency, why would we want you to become a permanent resident or a citizen, as opposed to the folks who say I've worked hard, two or three jobs to provide for my family, I want to do it right way, legally, to get a green card. And that's what the Trump administration has said. Those are the folks we welcome.
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): It is common sense, think about it.
HEGSETH: It's such common sense.
EARHARDT: Usually people come over here and they get a green card so that they can work in a restaurant or wherever they want to work. A better opportunity. But, to come over to our country, when you're not fleeing your country because you're not in danger, you're just coming to live on our soil, shouldn't you contribute, too?
HEGSETH: The problem is the left has created incentives for that, when you can get a driver's license, you can get free college, you get free health care. And then ultimately --
EARHARDT: Want them to be able to vote.
HEGSETH: Food stamps and possibly voting. I mean, all of that leads to that culture, and that's what the president's trying to fight back against.