On Your World, Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) told host Stuart Varney that the Obama administration has been a “total failure” on immigration. Instead of pointing out that the administration has deported a record number of foreigners or the economic benefits of immigration reform, Varney let Brewer argue that all undocumented immigrants, which he called “illegals,” should be “thrown out.” His only pushback was to say he didn’t “think” Americans support such an action.
During the interview with Brewer on January 31, 2014, the following exchange took place:
VARNEY: Would you call it amnesty if you give a legal pathway to citizenship while people, illegals are still here?
BREWER: YES.
VARNEY: You define that as amnesty?
BREWER: Yes.
VARNEY: You’re taking a hard line.
BREWER: Well I am.
VARNEY: Would you throw them out?
BREWER (after a long pause): Yes.
VARNEY: Wow, that’s a tough stance. I don’t think America’s with that.
BREWER: And maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe I am being too harsh, and particularly with, like with the dreamers, but that’s a problem that we need to solve that no one’s going to come to the table and try to solve that until the border is secure. They need a plan. …I was a truth teller, and that’s not what we’ve seen.
As UCLA Professor Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, author of The Comprehensive Benefits of Immigration Reform, told CNBC, expelling immigrants would cost $2.6 trillion to the GDP over 10 years, excluding deportation. CNBC also notes that according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it costs the government $8,318 to deport each person.
None of that information was provided to the “we report, you decide” network’s viewers.