Fox host attacks House Democrats for passing bill to protect Dreamers

Last year, the same Fox host claimed Democrats didn't really want a DACA deal

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt criticized House Democrats for passing the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, a bill which would create paths to citizenship for immigrants who qualify for protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and immigrants with temporary protected status. President Donald Trump has attempted to remove deportation protections from both groups.

Earhardt prefaced an interview with DACA recipient Hilario Yanez by mentioning the passage of the Dream and Promise Act and asking if House Democrats should “focus on finding a common ground on immigration instead” since it is “unlikely to see a vote in the GOP-led Senate.” She framed the Democrats efforts to protect DACA recipients as a futile political exercise geared toward winning the next election, saying, “Are Democrats going to say we passed it, we passed it, we did it, and Republicans killed everything?” 

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): So they just want a little sliver of this immigration plan to pass, whereas the president and Republicans want several things to be considered, including the wall. Why do you think that Democrats are trying to pass things or pass legislation that they know is going to fail in the Senate?

…

What’s going to happen in 2020? Are Democrats going to say we passed it, we passed it, we did it, and Republicans killed everything?

In February 2018, Earhardt joined in with her fellow co-hosts in baselessly claiming Democrats don’t really want to obtain deportation protections and a pathway to citizenship for beneficiaries of the DACA program. She said that the Democrats “want to be able to say” that Trump “sent all those folks back home, deported all of them, and that would be a better message for them and allow them to win”:

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): So this is the Democrats' chance to get DACA. This is what they wanted, right? Well they won't negotiate on this deal, and I kept thinking why. This is 1.8 [million] illegal immigrants that get to stay in our country. That's 1.8 [million] extra voters for them, because most of them will probably vote for Democrats. I thought, why wouldn’t they sign this, why wouldn’t they want it? And then I started thinking, maybe come November or maybe come 2020, [Democrats] want to be able to say, all right, it ended on March 5, the president sent all those folks back home, deported all of them, and that would be a better message for them and allow them to win.

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Plus, they don't want the message that hey, Donald Trump actually fixed the DACA problem when he was president of the United States.

EARHARDT: Right.

DOOCY: They don’t want that message come November.

If Earhardt wasn’t just pushing Republican propaganda, she would direct her criticism at Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for saying that he won’t even introduce the bill to the floor of his chamber.