Skeptical Laura Ingraham Puts Speaker Johnson on the Defensive: ‘That Sounds Like Amnesty’
Fox News host Laura Ingraham put Speaker Mike Johnson on his heels on Wednesday night during an interrogation about immigration policy.
President-Elect Donald Trump made the southern border and immigration focal points of his campaign, as did Republican congressional candidates. Last month, Trump said the U.S. “is like a garbage can” because of immigrants.
The GOP also retook control of the Senate and seems poised to narrowly keep the House. With a looming Republican trifecta, Ingraham asked Johnson about the immigration bills the lower chamber plans to pass.
“President-Elect Trump can do a lot just by executive order,” she said. “But I do understand from my sources that they want laws passed. They don’t want an executive order that can just be thrown away, you know, four years or eight years. They want permanent change. Can’t ask for asylum inside the country. Can’t play the game where you come here and say, ‘Oh, I’m oppressed,’ and you get to stay. He’s even talking about the birthright citizenship issue, which obviously is more problematic because of the Constitution. That would require more thinking and study. But he doesn’t want to just do the executive orders. Is that what your understanding is as well?”
“Yes,” Johnson replied. “Our agenda is to enact this into law. We need real, comprehensive immigration reform. We’ve needed it for a long time. But–”
“That sounds like amnesty,” the host interjected. “Every time I’ve heard Republicans say that, it’s like earned path to citizenship. Then we have 20 million, you know, people who get their citizenship overnight. Every time I hear that, it drives me crazy, but you can explain.”
The speaker became defensive and assured Ingraham the House will pass aggressive immigration legislation.
“No, no,” he protested. “We want to do the opposite of amnesty. If you do an amnesty program, you invite more people to violate the law. That’s exactly the opposite of what we need to do. We gotta begin on day one with securing the border. President Trump will issue an executive order. He has that authority under existing statutory law. But we’ve got to come right behind him with a robust legislative agenda. We have got to do this for the American people. Secure the border and then turn to the catastrophe that’s been created by the border being open. It is complex, as you know.”
Ingraham responded by asking if there will be deportations, to which Johnson responded, “Absolutely.”
“He won on that issue,” Ingraham said of Trump. “That was a big part of this mandate. People have to leave. If they leave, they can reapply maybe later on.”
Watch above via Fox News.
