CNSNews.com has long tried to tag any action that doesn’t involve deporting illegal immigrants as “amnesty,” despite the fact that the word has a specific definition that in no way applies to things such has a proposed “path to citizenship.”
With President Obama’s recent announcement of a delay in deportation hearings for certain undocumented immigrants who meet specific criteria, CNS is at it again. The fact that the program is clearly not amnesty isn’t keeping CNS from suggesting that it is.
A June 15 article focusing on a Homeland Security press release carried the headline “Amnesty? Immunity? Administration Calls It a ‘Deferred Action Process.'” The word “amnesty” appears nowhere in Jones’ article, and Jones doesn’t explain what part of the program constitutes “immunity.”
That was followed by an article by Matt Cover that starts: “Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the administration’s new program for young illegal immigrants is ‘not amnesty’ despite the fact that it will remove them from the deportation process.” Cover didn’t explain how anything under Obama’s action, let alone “removing” certain illegal immigrants “from the deportation process,” meets the standard definition of “amnesty.”
UPDATE: A June 18 CNS article by Penny Starr carries the headline “Obama Campaign Sends ‘Dreamers’ Fundraiser Letter Hours after Amnesty Announcement.” Starr goes on to falsely claim that the proposed DREAM Act “gives amnesty to certain young illegal aliens who were brought to this country as children.” In fact, because the DREAM Act imposes numerous conditions on the citizenship being granted, it cannot be “amnesty,” which by general definition does not require preconditions.