In her eagerness to promote what Fox called Donald Trump’s “immigration crackdown,” Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham spouted vicious falsehoods portraying undocumented immigrants as moochers sponging off law-abiding folks.
INGRAHAM: A shocking percentage of illegal immigrants are on both Medicaid and getting other types of disability benefits, food stamps. A lot of them have children. And if you poll that in the United States I would imagine people aren’t happy about that because of the money we’re spending.
Or maybe people aren’t happy because that’s fake news.
As CNN noted in 2014, undocumented immigrants don’t qualify for most social programs like food stamps or Medicaid. They can get emergency health care and schooling. Citizen children of undocumented immigrants qualify for social benefits. “The truth is that undocumented immigrants contribute more in payroll taxes than they will ever consume in public benefits,” the network reported.
Ingrham’s error was not corrected.
Watch her get away with her immigrant-bashing lie below, from the February 21, 2017 Special Report.