{"id":24275,"date":"2021-03-15T08:21:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T12:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=24275"},"modified":"2021-03-15T08:21:19","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T12:21:19","slug":"gop-rep-amnesty-talking-points-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/03\/15\/gop-rep-amnesty-talking-points-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Salazar Recycles Same Tired Pro-Amnesty Talking Points"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Earlier this month, freshman Representative Maria Elvira Salazar talked immigration and amnesty<\/a> with Fox Business Network\u2019s Larry Kudlow, the former head of Donald Trump\u2019s National Economic Council. The interview began with a recent exchange Rep. Salazar had with former Trump senior adviser, Stephen Miller<\/a>. During the remainder of the conversation, Ms. Salazar \u2013 a Republican representing Florida\u2019s 27th <\/sup>(Miami area) District \u2013 attempted to sell mass amnesty to Fox viewers as Mr. Kudlow seemed to nod in agreement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her talking points may\nnot be original, but they certainly represent everything that\u2019s wrong with the\npro-amnesty, soft-on-illegal-migration wing of the GOP. Here are several of her\nmain points (in bold), along with responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To quote Politico<\/em>,\n\u201c\u02bbI told him [Stephen Miller] that the GOP needs to attract the browns,\u2019 said\nSalazar, a Cuban American.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here Salazar sadly racializes what is not a question of race, but of law and sovereignty. She is also confusingly conflating Hispanics, immigrants, and illegal aliens. What is more, the Florida Republican is essentially recycling the pro-amnesty GOP\u2019s mantra that the best way for the Republicans to win over Latino voters is to tolerate illegal migration and promote amnesty. The reality, however, is that the Trump-era GOP \u2013 with its pro-border-security, anti-illegal-migration message \u2013 actually improved its standing with Hispanic voters (see here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also told Politico<\/em>:\n\u201cWe, for the last 30 years since Ronald Reagan, have not sent the right message\nto the browns. Reagan was the last guy who gave a path to citizenship to 3\nmillion people \u2026 35 years ago. It\u2019s time for us to do the same thing that\nReagan did.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What this statement ignores is the fact that the 1986 amnesty was a counter-productive failure<\/a> and that it came with a promise that it would never be repeated. The promises of enforcement did not materialize, while the number of illegal aliens in the United States increased almost fivefold<\/em>, from 3 million\u00a0 to an estimated 14.5 million<\/a> now (of course, Salazar repeatedly cited the 11 million figure, which is undoubtedly an under-estimate). Although the congresswoman pays lip service to border security, we have already been down this path before, and it clearly didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When speaking of illegal\naliens, Salazar told Kudlow: \u201cprobably most of them, 80 percent of them (\u2026)\nhave been here for more than five years, they have American children, they have\nnot committed a crime, they pay taxes, and they’re doing jobs that other\nAmericans don\u2019t want to do.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Florida politician is\nignoring the fact that any foreign national in the U.S. illegally has by\ndefinition broken our immigration laws, and this is not subject to any statute\nof limitations. In other words, living here illegally for a long period of time\ndoes not diminish or change the reality that one is residing in our country\nunlawfully. Additionally, many, if not most people working illegally are\nengaging in identity fraud or identity theft, both of which are federal crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is true that illegal aliens pay some taxes, FAIR has shown the burden of the unlawfully-present population to American taxpayers \u2013 $133.7 billion<\/a> \u2013 far outweighs any fiscal contributions illegal aliens make. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, the truth is that Americans will do any job at market-level wages and in decent working conditions. In fact, the Center for Immigration Studies has shown<\/a> that of 474 separate occupations defined by the Department of Commerce, none are illegal-alien-majority.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Larry Kudlow\nexpressed skepticism towards family-based chain migration, arguing that immigration\nshould be merit-based, Rep. Salazar responded that: \u201cmerit-based is what we\nneed to do, but remember that not everybody that is a doctor or an engineer is\nneeded in the marketplace. You also need people picking up jalapeno peppers,\nyou need people picking up tomatoes in homestead[s]in my area, you also need\npeople that that are going to be serving the in the hospitality industry. It\u2019s\nmerit-based.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a prime example\nof semantic manipulation, for Ms. Salazar has essentially collapsed any difference\nbetween high-skilled, high-wage occupations (doctors, engineers) and\nlow-skilled, low-wage jobs (farmworkers, cleaners), implying that both are\nequally based on \u201cmerit.\u201d And many farmers still \u201cneed\u201d foreign laborers to\nmanually pick crops simply because the steady supply of cheap illegal alien\nlabor has disincentivized them from mechanizing. In addition, she has not\nconsidered the likely effects of an amnesty on the farmworkers, who would\neither move into somewhat better-paying jobs in the legal economy (thereby\ncompeting with low-income Americans), go on welfare, or both. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the largest elephant in the room during the Kudlow-Salazar exchange was the matter of how much mass amnesty would cost. Ms. Salazar makes it sound like granting \u201clegality\u201d to millions of illegal aliens would simply be a matter of compassion while also benefiting the economy. But in the real world, it would lead to more taxes and debt. According to the Heritage Foundation<\/a>, a mass amnesty would cost $3.6 trillion over a 75-year period. Thus, amnesty will be far from a \u201cfree lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, freshman Representative Maria Elvira Salazar talked immigration and amnesty with Fox Business Network\u2019s Larry Kudlow, the former head of Donald Trump\u2019s National Economic Council. The interview began with a recent exchange Rep. Salazar had with former Trump senior adviser, Stephen Miller. During the remainder of the conversation, Ms. Salazar \u2013 a Republican<\/p>\n

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