Fox Nation falsely equated “amnesty,” a term shown to produce negative reactions, with a pathway to earned citizenship for undocumented immigrants. In fact, a pathway to earned citizenship would require immigrants illegally in the U.S. to meet a number of requirements before applying for citizenship.

On April 24, Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a speech to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in which he said, “creating a pathway to earned citizenship” for undocumented immigrants is “a matter of civil and human rights.” Fox Nation highlighted the speech under the headline “Holder Calls Amnesty a 'Civil Right.' ” In its post, however, Fox Nation reported that Holder said “creating a 'pathway to earned citizenship' was a 'civil right.' ”

Fox Nation equated “amnesty” with a pathway to earned citizenship, but the two are not the same. To get on a pathway to earned citizenship, undocumented immigrants would have to face a number of hurdles, including completing a registration process, paying fines and taxes, and studying English. 

Indeed, the comprehensive immigration reform proposal introduced in the Senate on April 17 by a bipartisan group of senators includes numerous conditions undocumented immigrants must meet before they can apply for citizenship, along with waiting a minimum of 13 years. That legislation has been repeatedly attacked by conservative media as “amnesty,” even though immigration experts dispute the claim. 

Fox has a long history of labeling immigration policies “amnesty,” a term that has been shown to produce a more negative reaction than describing a policy as “a path to citizenship.”