At Utah Eagle Forum event, speaker links immigration, census counts and benefit claims
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Summary
During a Q&A at an Eagle Forum event, the speaker said the U.S. census counts 'bodies' not citizens, argued Democrats favor higher immigration for political power and claimed long-term benefit use and fraud by undocumented immigrants; audience questions focused on screening practices.
During a question-and-answer exchange at a Utah Eagle Forum event, an audience member named Joel asked why the United States does not screen immigrants as New Zealand does. The speaker, who identified himself as a U.S. representative, said border policy is controlled by the federal government and defended stricter enforcement.
“Do we count citizens? No. We count bodies,” the representative said when explaining his concern about how census counts affect congressional representation. He tied census counting to political power, asserting that parties favor more immigration to expand voting power, and said that large numbers of undocumented people create pressure on public-benefit programs.
The speaker made several empirical claims during the exchange: he said there may be “20,000,000 unknown” people in the country and referenced higher figures he had heard (he cited numbers up to 50,000,000). He also said immigrants “find free health care in the form of Medicaid” and use SNAP benefits for years, and described fraud on benefits as “filthy.” ‘‘I’m a big fan of legal immigration,’’ he added, ‘‘but God bless Donald Trump for sealing the border.’’
The event provided the speaker’s assertions and was not a forum for dispute or verification; no supporting data or rebuttals appeared in the transcript. The claims are attributable to the speaker and should be verified independently by reporters or researchers.
