The Washington Post is helping a former official from President George H.W. Bush's administration walk back his 1990 congressional testimony that Bush's executive action on immigration could have helped up to 1.5 million people and using that to decry the Obama administration's use of the figure to justify its upcoming immigration action. But the official, then-Federal Immigration Commissioner Gene McNary, was the person who introduced the 1.5 million figure, and an immigration expert's analysis of immigration numbers at the time shows that the figure is plausible.here we go with another big business recently changing ownership and immediately starts leaning right, Post was the paper that Black Americans trusted because it was fair and balance for real but like NBC/Comcast they seem to see red more than purple. republicans all seem to have selected memories when they get caught with the headlights in their eyes trouble is they can't keep their lies straight.
White House Says George H.W. Bush's Immigration Executive Action Covered 1.5 Million Immigrants
White House: 1.5 Million Undocumented Immigrants Were Eligible Under 1990 Executive Action. Responding to a question about whether past executive actions on immigration "would involve millions of people like this upcoming one," White House press secretary Josh Earnest noted that George H.W. Bush had "expanded the family fairness program to cover more than 1.5 million unauthorized spouses and children" and that it "represented about 40 percent of the undocumented population at the time." [WhiteHouse.gov, 11/19/14]
Wash. Post Helps McNary Walk Back His 1.5 Million Estimate
Wash. Post Fact Checker Forced To Correct Post On Scope Of Obama's Immigration Executive Action. In a November 24 post on The Washington Post's Fact Checker blog, Glenn Kessler labeled the administration's claims that the 1990 executive action by President George H.W. Bush affected 1.5 million undocumented immigrants suspect. He said the figure was a "rounded-up estimate" from "a single news article" that misleadingly included people who were not eligible to be legalized at the time due to pending applications or appeals.
Kessler's argument sparked significant criticism after other media noted that then-Federal Immigration Commissioner Gene McNary testified in 1990 that 1.5 million undocumented immigrants would be covered by the policy. Kessler downgraded his assessment of the original claim from "Four Pinocchios" to "Three Pinocchios" and updated his post to note the discovery of McNary's testimony. [Media Matters, 11/24/14]
Wash. Post Updates: Source Of The Number "Is Fairly Certain He Never Used That Figure." Kessler updated his original post to note McNary's testimony and include comment from McNary, who said he did not recall using the 1.5 million figure. Kessler concluded that the figure "appears to be a random one-off comment, apparently never repeated by McNary or any other Bush administration official":
don't think you would forget something with a figure that high but what still amazes me is how they either don't take into account that it's history it's recorded somewhere or they just don't give a damn till the light shines brightly on them then the lies begin, they thought they saw another grain of sand they could spin against Pres. but they are the ones who spun out of control
