Fox News' three primetime shows wholly ignored GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-TX)'s announcement that he would not only deport all 11.3 million undocumented immigrants in the country, but would also halt legal immigration and “oppose” “allowing folks to come back in and become citizens.”
At a campaign stop in Iowa on January 4, Cruz was asked to compare his immigration plan to that of GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, who advocates deporting all 11.3 million undocumented immigrants. Cruz responded that he would not only deport all 11.3 million immigrants, but would also not allow deported immigrants to re-enter the country or apply for citizenship:
QUESTIONER: Both you and Donald Trump are really strong on immigration, but he supports deporting all the illegal immigrants. Are you willing to say the same?
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Absolutely, yes. We should enforce the law.
QUESTIONER: All?
CRUZ: We should enforce the law.
QUESTIONER: Ok.
CRUZ: And in fact, look, there's a difference. He's advocated allowing folks to come back in and become citizens. I oppose that.
Fox's three primetime shows - The O'Reilly Factor, The Kelly File, and Hannity -- all ignored the remarks and failed to discuss Cruz's deportation plan on the January 4, 5, and 6 editions of their shows. While Cruz's comments were entirely disregarded on the January 4, 5, and 6 editions of The O'Reilly Factor and The Kelly File, Fox host Sean Hannity had an opportunity to bring up the issue directly with Cruz during an interview on his show.
On the January 4 edition of Hannity, Sean Hannity hosted Cruz, and despite discussing the topic of immigration, failed to ask Cruz directly about his plan to halt legal immigration. Hannity asked Cruz “what happens to the eleven million people that are here illegally?” When Cruz dodged the question, Hannity gave him a pass and moved on to a new topic:
SEAN HANNITY (HOST): The issue of immigration is so key this year, and both Marco Rubio and Donald Trump have gone after you. Trump said you copied his immigration plan. You had that battle in the last debate with Rubio. And your statement was “I oppose legalization today, tomorrow, and forever.” Meaning what, that we build the fence, that we secure the border, what happens to the eleven million people that are here illegally?
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): We enforce the law. Existing law provides that if we apprehend someone here illegally, we deport them. That's what existing law is, and we have a president, Barack Obama, who refuses to follow the law. I've spent my whole life fighting to defend the rule of law, fighting to defend theConstitution. When it comes to immigration, 2013 was really, as Reagan would say, a time for choosing. It's when a line was drawn in the sand. On one side, you had Barack Obama and you had Chuck Schumer, and you had a whole lot of establishment Republicans in Washington lining up behind a massive amnesty plan. On the other side of the line were people like Steve Sessions, where people like Iowa's own Steve King, and I stood with Jeff Sessions and Steve King. And we led the fight to defeat theGang of Eight amnesty plan, to preserve the rule of law and to fight to secure our borders. And you know, it's interesting. A lot of presidential candidates suddenly have discovered illegal immigration is an issue. I'll point out, Sean, you remember that 2013 fight. You were standing there leading the fight, Mark Levin was leading the fight, Rush was leading the fight. You look at the men and women standing on that debate stage, in 2013 when Obama was on the verge of getting his amnesty win, most of the other men and women on that debate stage were nowhere to be found.