Ingraham: White House yanked immigration plan defense from show

Fox News host Laura Ingraham said on her show Friday that no White House official would appear on “The Ingraham Angle” to defend President Trump’s recently-unveiled immigration plan.

“It’s not the plan I would want,” Ingraham told her viewers, opposing the proposal. “We invited any White House official on to the show tonight. We were told we were going to have one, and then they pulled him at the last minute.”

“I want to hear from the White House on this,” she continued. “We hope to have someone on Monday.”

{mosads}The White House unveiled details of the immigration plan Thursday. The plan includes a path to citizenship for 1.8 million immigrants who are covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, as well as those who are eligible for DACA but did not apply.

In exchange for those protections, Trump will seek $25 billion in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The money would be placed in a trust fund, preventing it from being reallocated by a future Congress.

The plan also includes changes to the legal immigration system, including barring U.S. citizens and permanent residents from sponsoring any family members other than spouses and minor children for migration to the U.S. 

The plan has won some praise from Republicans, including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Sen. David Purdue (R-Ga.).

But Trump’s proposal has drawn heat from some conservatives, including the conservative Heritage Action group, which called the plan a “nonstarter.”

Trump’s plan was also panned by Democrats, with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) calling it “dead on arrival” and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) saying there is “no public policy justification” for the proposed legal immigration changes.