News

MYTH: The new Hoeven-Corker Amendment creates a special program with taxpayer money to give free cars, motorcycles, or scooters to young people 15 months after the bill passes.

• “Breitbart News has learned there is a provision included in the immigration bill that could be used to give free cars, motorcycles, scooters or other vehicles to young people around the country over a period of 15 months after the bill passes. The new provision is a result of the latest addition to the Corker-Hoeven amendment, which is essentially an entirely new version of the bill.” (Matthew Boyle, “New Immigration Bill Has Taxpayer Subsidized ObamaCars for Youths,” Breitbart, 6/24/13)

FACT: There are absolutely no cars, motorcycles, or scooters for young Americans in the immigration bill, and no taxpayer dollars will be used to fund the new jobs program for American youth.

• The jobs program for young Americans does not cost any taxpayer money. It is being funded directly by a new fee that foreigners will pay when they’re applying for visas. This program is being created because of concerns about American kids competing with foreign workers for low-skill jobs, so to protect them, foreign workers will pay for job training programs for American youth.
• The language of the bill reads “supportive services, such as transportation and child care”. The qualifier here is that they will be provided “services” and not “goods”. That means the program could provide a service, like a bus ride to a work site, but it cannot provide a car, scooter, motorcycle, or pair of rollerblades.

FLASHBACK TO THE “MARCOPHONE” MYTH…

MYTH: “The 844-page immigration reform bill the bipartisan ‘Gang of Eight’ dropped in the dead of night contains a lucrative handout that would give taxpayer-funded free cell phones to some people who live or work near the U.S. border with Mexico.” (Matthew Boyle, “Immigration Bill Contains ‘MarcoPhones,’” Breitbart News, 4/17/13)

FACT: In addition to enhancing technology and fencing at the border, the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013” includes a provision to give rural residents and business owners near the Mexican border access to cell service and phones so they can quickly report border violence to the police and the Department of Homeland Security. This provision was included in the “Border Security Enforcement Act of 2011”, in response to the case of Robert Krentz, an Arizona rancher who was murdered on his property and did not have the ability to communicate directly with law enforcement because of his rural location. Giving people living and working on the Mexican border the ability to communicate directly with law enforcement is important to securing our border.

FACT: The “MarcoPhone” myth was so baseless that not a single amendment has ever been filed throughout this entire legislative process to eliminate or even clarify this provision or its intent.

Read the full “MarcoPhone” fact check here.