GOP Rep. Yvette Herrell on Immigration: ‘We Stand for Our Workers’

The GOP will stand up for Americans’ ability to earn a living despite the flood of migrants invited in by President Joe Biden, according to Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-NM).

“We stand for our workers,” Herrell outlined in a weekend speech touted by GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy as the weekly Republican Address:

Democrats would rather ignore Joe Biden’s humanitarian disaster than give up their dream of open borders. But Americans won’t be distracted. Not by the media or the radical left. And neither will the Republican Party.

Perfectly stated by @RepHerrell in this Republican Address. pic.twitter.com/UMNTZ7p3iL

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) September 25, 2021

“There is a fundamental division in Washington,” Herrell said:

Republicans believe that our government has a duty to protect our citizens and secure our border. We believe that our government has a responsibility to know who illegally crosses our border, and then enforce the law. But Washington Democrats do not believe that Americans have the right to protect their home or even question the surge of thousands of non-citizens into the country.

Instead, they would rather demonize the brave men and women of our Border Patrol and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and hide from accountability. Democrats in Congress would rather ignore [President] Joe Biden’s humanitarian disaster than give up their dream of open borders.

But Americans won’t be distracted, not by the media, or the radical left. We stand for our workers. We stand for law enforcement. We stand for safe communities. We stand for borders. We stand for America.

“People are connecting the dots in the Republican Party that immigration harms ordinary Americans,” responded Rob Law, the director of regulatory affairs and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies. Law continued:

That is the key message that needs to be hammered home. The more that is emphasized, the more the public will back their positions and hold Biden’s administration and the Democrats accountable [for the economic damage done to Americans].

I couldn’t imagine a poll has suggested that Americans are okay with their jobs going to illegal aliens or illegal immigrants. The only people who would say that they’re okay with that are people who hold the types of jobs that they know will never face the competition from mass immigration, either by suppressing their wages or just replacing them in the workforce.

Harrell’s emphasis on pocketbook issues is unusual for the GOP.

For many years, the donor-funded GOP leaders, including McCarthy and Rep. John Katko (R-NY) — and their staff — have downplayed the pocketbook impact of migration on Americans’ communities. One reason for this policy is to avoid making any campaign promises on immigration that would be opposed by the donors.

Instead, the GOP tries to spin up the turnout of its base voters by spotlighting the non-economic aspects of the migration problem, including crime by migrants, border chaos, and drug smuggling.

The pocketbook issues are also raised by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN).

Many polls show that labor migration is deeply unpopular because it damages ordinary Americans’ career opportunities, cuts their wages, and raises their rents. Migration also curbs their productivity, shrinks their political clout, widens regional wealth gaps, and wrecks their democratic, compromise-promoting civic culture.

For many years, a wide variety of pollsters have shown deep and broad opposition to labor migration and the inflow of temporary contract workers into jobs sought by young U.S. graduates.

This pocketbook opposition is multiracial, cross-sex, non-racist, class-based, bipartisan,  rational, persistent, and recognizes the solidarity Americans owe to each other.