Immigration attorney Linda Vega visited Fox & Friends to promote Donald Trump’s crumbs to Democrats in return for his unpopular border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for. Somehow the show “forgot” to mention that Vega is a Republican activist.
A quick Google search reveals that Vega ran as a Republican U.S. Senate candidate several years ago. In her current Twitter profile, she labels herself as a Republican and a conservative as well as an immigration attorney. She is also the founder and board member of an organization dedicated to increasing Latino participation in elections.
But this morning, host Brian Kilmeade merely introduced Vega as an “immigration attorney.”
The spin started early. Kilmeade began by saying about Trump’s latest immigration proposal, “The president’s plan is a good one, help a lot of people. Linda Vega, how many of your clients would benefit from this?"
"Oh, a majority of them,” Vega said, “especially the young people who are trying to get educated and go out into the workforce and pay taxes. It's a great benefit." She said Trump offered DACA recipients (aka DREAMers) “the opportunity to adjust their status to permanent residency or to continue studying in this country or to actually work and pay taxes. So it's a great offer for a starting point."
Kilmeade prodded Vega to take a swipe at Democrats: "Are you surprised Democrats haven't looked at this more favorably?"
And Vega took the bait. "I'm very surprised. I’m very surprised because if they're asking for a permanent solution, this at least is a starting point to sit at the table and discuss making it a permanent solution.” She went on to say that it’s Congress’ job, not the president’s, to offer a permanent solution.
“What’s it like for some of your clients on a daily basis?” Kilmeade asked.
"It's frustrating for them,” Vega said. “And they're full of anger, they’re full of fear. They don't know whether they're going to have to leave this country that they believed is their own. But many of them are losing opportunities to go to universities, to study, to be in the workforce, and to be part of our American culture." She called it "very selfish behavior" by Congress.
Nobody mentioned that it was Trump who decided to destroy DACA in the first place.
But Kilmeade seemed very eager to present Trump as some kind of savior. “There’s a rainbow there, are you surprised the Democrats aren’t running towards it?” he “asked.”
Vega said she’s “very surprised” and accused Democrats of "not even looking at the offer, frankly, because it's President Trump offering."
FACT CHECK: The Democrats have said they are willing to negotiate border security with Trump but they want the government opened first.
As a recent CNN article pointed out, Trump wants a permanent wall but he’s merely offering “a short-term reprieve from a [DACA] limbo he himself created.” Furthermore, Democrats believe that if they give in now, “he can use the same tactic to browbeat the Democratic House majority in the future.” Also, as Trump’s poll numbers sink, CNN noted that Democrats “see the latest offer as simply an effort by the White House to ease Trump's political plight, so they have little incentive to let him off the hook.”
After this segment aired, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to act on Trump’s appeal of federal judges’ stays of DACA, meaning the case will probably not be heard by the Supreme Court until next year, thus leaving the program in place for much of Trump’s period of extension anyway.
Watch Fox try to help Trump get off the hook below, from the January 22, 2019 Fox & Friends.
Beware Trump will be looking to take something else way from the left so he can then offer it back to them as a ‘compromise’ for more of his wall funding boondoggle.