How Karl Rove Learned to Love “Amnesty”-Bashing (If It Can Beat Some Democrats)
U.S. Border Patrol agent Jonan Lara checks vehicles for occupant's identification at the Eagle Pass/Carrizo Springs interior checkpoint near Eagle Pass, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, July 3, 2014. The Border Patrol finds an average of one corpse a day in the badlands near the U.S.-Mexico border; in the past 15 years, the toll has reached 5,570, exceeding all U.S. combat deaths for the Iraq war.
Photographer: Eddie Seal/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesVia Daniel Strauss, a new American Crossroads TV ad in Iowa accuses Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley of giving "lawbreakers access to food stamps and Medicare" by supporting "amnesty." The hook: At least part of this claim is sourced to a 2013 Heritage Foundation report on "the fiscal cost of unlawful immigrants and amnesty." The think tank backed away from that report after then-Washington Post reporter (now-Vox reporter) Dylan Matthews located the thesis of its main author, Jason Richwine, and other reports dug into the items Richwine had written for race-obsessed conservative news sites.
The policy conclusions of that report, which remains online, have not actually been debunked. Richwine's point about entitlements was that allowing the people who crossed illegally into the United States to collect benefits, use food stamps, etc, would be expensive. You could make that point about any Democrat who backed any form of immigration reform that would lead to earned citizenship.