Multiple establishment-allied Republicans are sneakily zig-zagging their way toward chaotic amnesty politics and a debilitating cheap-labor economic policy.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), for example, is hinting that he wants to roll back President Donald Trump’s pro-prosperity, low-migration policy. “I’m in favor of deporting criminals and gang members and people with active deportation orders, but I think that the policy should be a little bit more nuanced,” he told the Times of San Diego on June 21. He added:
We [legislators] look at each one on an individual basis and see what we can do … And since we have control of the border, maybe we need to start looking as a country at how we can moderate what’s going on.
Gimenez is now reportedly competing for the chairmanship of the House Committee on Homeland Security against Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY). The Hill reported:
Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) threw his hat in the ring Wednesday, joining a crowded field with Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) and Clay Higgins (R-La.) all running for the top spot on the panel … “They all have their attributes,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the most senior member of the [decisive Republican Steering] committee, told The Hill.
The selection is expected on Tuesday evening.
Garbarino is also zig-zagging between rival opinions in his district. “The deportation of gang members, drug dealers, and criminals should be prioritized before a [illegal migrant] college student,” he told Newsday on July 19.
The leading zig-zagger is Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL). She insists her draft bill, dubbed The Dignity Act, provides dignity to illegal migrants, but denies amnesty. But she also told a TV station, “We give them dignity: At some point in the future, another legislator will write another law to give them a path to citizenship.”
Her bill offers amnesties to several groups of migrants, including the DACA migrants, but hides the amnesties by putting migrants on a long and indirect path to citizenship. Her amnesties are also hidden under her promise of delivering to donors many more legal, non-citizen migrant workers for the white-collar and blue-collar jobs that would otherwise go to better-paid American citizens and high-tech, labor-saving machines:
Right now, what we need to do is to buy peace for these people, allow them to stay, to continue working, because they’re needed. What I’m trying to do, is to bring some common sense — which is the least common of all senses — to this conversation. And I know that someone from Miami could do it easily because, you know, I was on Univision, and I served that community for many years. Besides, now I’m representing some of their family members.
It’s easy. The economy needs them. They do not have a criminal record. They have not gone into trouble. They have been here for a long time. They have roots in the country. Let them stay. Don’t give them any type of federal programs and allow them to pay taxes, help the Social Security fund and let them stay and contribute to the economy with no criminal record. What is wrong with that? We need them!
Salazar’s husband is Lester Woerner, the chairman of Woerner Holdings, LP. The company is “based in West Palm Beach, Florida, with investments in real estate, agriculture, and financial securities. An entrepreneur since the age of 13, he was the youngest person, at age 27, to be appointed by a governor of Alabama to the State Board of Agriculture and Industries.” For example, one company is Schmieding Produce, which sells farm produce to Walmart, Target, Safeway, and Food Lion.
Many farming companies prefer to rely on disposable, government-subsidized labor instead of investing in labor-saving but expensive machines.
Salazar’s zig-zag amnesty bill is backed by 10 other GOP legislators.
They include Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), who owns orchards that rely on farm labor, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), who voted against the Trump-backed reconciliation bill, migration supporter Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), and retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE).
Her low-productivity bill is also backed by Rep. Mario Rafael Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO), Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), Rep. Young Kim (R-CA), and Rep. David Valadao (R-CA). “In the [Central] Valley there are many people who have lived and worked peacefully for years, and they deserve a fair opportunity to earn legal status,” said a statement from Valadao.
Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) is also weaving between the pro-American voters and pro-migration CEOs. On July 10, for example, the Gazette reported about Hinson’s response to President Donald Trump’s July 4 call for a work permit for illegal migrants in the food sector amid his nationwide deportation policies:
During a conference call Thursday with Iowa reporters, Hinson, of Marion, said she cares deeply about protecting the integrity of the U.S. food supply and supports legal pathways for people to work in critical industries like agriculture while addressing illegal immigration.
“I think what’s most important is we work toward a solution that provides a legal immigration workforce visa,” she said. “So this is a workforce visa, not an amnesty issue, and we need to make sure we have those legal pathways for people to come here to work in critical industries like agriculture. …
“Again, I think you can couple dealing with the deportation side with illegal immigration at the same time providing pathways for people to come here and work legally. And I look forward to working with them to make sure we’re finding the right balance there.”
Sometimes, a surge of voters shoves the legislators towards a clear policy, as Trump’s voters did when they elected him on a pro-deportation policy in November.
But most politicians zig and zag on difficult issues as they try to find compromises, postpone conflicts, and divert disputes between the usually different interests of donors and voters. So, most end up squeezing between jostling donors and assertive voters, said Jessica Vaughan, the policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies.
Salazar’s bill “is going nowhere, but [GOP supporters] are willing to go along with it so that they can tell some of their donors that they tried,” Vaughan added. But pro-American voters can never relax, she said.
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