Vanessa Cárdenas: “Repeating a Lie Over and Over Again Doesn’t Make It Any More True”

Access online version of this press release HERE

Washington, DC —This administration and their allies in and out of Congress are continuing their ‘big and brazen’ lie about immigrants amid the government shutdown – a lie that doubles as a revealing reminder about their larger strategy.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“Repeating a lie over and over again doesn’t make it any more true. Yet that is exactly the message Trump and his allies in Congress are spewing to America in their ‘blame immigrants’ propaganda campaign about the shutdown. It is telling that their strategy is to keep us divided and angry at immigrants – and each other – to distract from the reality that their policies are taking away Americans’ healthcare and damaging our economy. They aren’t interested in the facts any more than they are about actually fixing our broken immigration system.”

See below for key fact checks from outside observers and key elected officials calling out the right wing immigration lie on immigrants and healthcare.

●     CNN, “Fact check: Trump falsely claims Democrats want to give free health care to ‘illegal aliens’ in government shutdown battle,”

●     Associated Press, “Fact Focus: Democrats did not shut down the government to give health care to ‘illegal immigrants’”

●     Jonathan Cohn, one of the leading healthcare policy journalists, writing in The Bulwark, “The Republican Shutdown Argument is a Giant Lie – No, Democrats aren’t trying to fund health care for ‘illegal aliens.’”

●     NBC News, “GOP misleads with claim that Democrats shut down to give health care to ‘illegal immigrants‘”

●     FactCheck.org, “A False Claim About Illegal Immigration and Medicaid”

●     The New York Times, “Explaining the G.O.P.’s Misleading Talking Point on the Looming Shutdown”

Selected Elected Officials

●     Sen. Mark Warner: “These lies are pissing me off. This isn’t about health care for undocumented immigrants – that’s already against the law. It’s about the fact that Republicans are intentionally skyrocketing your premiums.”

●     Rep Jason Crow (D-CO): “They’re just outright lies. They’re saying things like, “You know, we’re shutting down the government to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants,” and that is not true; it’s just a patent lie.”

●     Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: “This is a lie to distract from the fact that Republicans are making your health care more expensive”

●     Rep. Seth Magaziner: “Facts are stubborn: people in the US illegally have never been eligible for Medicare, Medicaid or ACA credits.”

●     Rep. Jim McGovern: “Undocumented immigrants CAN’T get Medicare, Medicaid, or healthcare tax credits. It’s against the law. These guys lie because the facts are not on their side.”

●     Sen. Chris Murphy: “It’s so pathetically predictable. ‘Democrats did __________ because of illegals.’ They think the American people are dumb. They aren’t.”