Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) has been infamously dubbed “No Wall McCaul” by immigration reformers who want to see an end to illegal immigration and frivolous cheap labor programs. Despite this, McCaul remains on the list for the top job at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
This week, POLITICO reported that House Homeland Security Committee Chairman McCaul was a “leading candidate” to replace Gen. John Kelly, who left DHS to become President Trump’s Chief of Staff. In an administration seemingly dedicated to immigration enforcement and protecting American workers’ interests, McCaul’s past statements and legislative actions put him at odds with the “America First” DHS agenda.
Here are five examples:
1. McCaul Against the Border Wall
In February of this year, McCaul spoke against putting a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, despite Trump just coming off a major upset victory against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, partly because he promised to end illegal immigration through a border wall.
“I don’t think we need a 2,000-mile wall down there,” McCaul told PBS News at the time.
2. McCaul: Border Wall is ‘Very Expensive’
In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) this year, McCaul explained that a border wall – like the kind Trump has touted – across the U.S.-Mexico border would be “very expensive.”
“The wall represents a physical barrier that’s integrated by technology,” McCaul told NPR. “How exactly that’s going to look, that is really the source of debate as I speak. Now, we had many meetings with the department. I’ve had many meetings with the appropriators about, you know, what makes sense down there. You have to understand, too, that a 30-foot concrete wall is a very expensive proposition. And there are a lot of other things we can be doing technologywise to make it a smart border that’s more effective and more cost efficient.”
McCaul also said Trump needed to be “careful” with rhetoric in relation to the border wall.
“Well – and I will say, I chair the U.S.-Mexico Interparliamentary Group. We’ll be meeting in early June in Mexico City,” McCaul said. “Mexico is our largest trading partner in Texas. And so I believe the rhetoric – we have to be careful with this rhetoric. And we also need to make sure that our trade policies don’t hurt our local economies.”
3. Pushing ‘Lipstick’ Border Legislation
In May, McCaul began working with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on what immigration activists have called a “lipstick” border bill that would provide cover for amnesty for illegal aliens in the future. Cornyn’s legislation that McCaul is helping with, as Breitbart News reported, includes less than ten miles of border wall construction, no mandatory E-Verify requirements and continued cheap, foreign labor access for big business.
4. Gang of Eight-Style Border Weakness
In 2013, McCaul pushed legislation in the House to jump-start the infamous “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill that would have legalized the estimated 11 to 30 million illegal aliens living in the U.S.
McCaul’s ‘Border Security Results Act’ would have greatly watered-down existing border security law, by shifting DHS focus away from the entire U.S. southern border to solely the southwest border region.
5. Pro-Cheap, Foreign Labor Record
Though McCaul’s record on border security remains at odds with the Trump administration’s pro-enforcement agenda, the Texas congressman’s record on protecting American workers and their blue-collar jobs is the antithesis to what the President promised to do.
The pro-American-worker group NumbersUSA has given McCaul an “F-” on issues where he sided with the big business and outsourcing lobbies to increase the number of low-skilled foreign workers who are imported to the U.S. every year to take American jobs.
In 2017, McCaul voted in favor of increasing the number of non-agricultural H-2B foreign guest workers who are imported by 70,000. In 2015, McCaul voted in favor of increasing the number of H-2B workers by at least 264,000 a year. That same year, McCaul also voted in favor of allowing then-President Obama to increase legal immigration levels without the consent of Congress.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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