Joe Kent, who is running for the House of Representatives in Washington’s Third District, slammed his opponent, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), for her record on immigration, particularly with the respect to her recent “yes” vote on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
“Beutler enables the assault on our border by voting for amnesty for illegals & by voting to stop the construction of the wall. Beutler has no true ideology that anchors her; when opposing the wall & siding with amnesty was politically expedient she voted for it because she takes money from global corporations like Koch Industries & the Carlyle group, who benefit from the cheap foreign labor & the displacement of American workers,” Kent told Breitbart News.
An unidentified migrant father and his son from Honduras wait to be processed after passing through a gap in the border wall in Yuma, Ariz., Wednesday, June 9, 2021 to seek asylum in the U.S. (Eugene Garcia/AP)
In a July 15 tweet, Kent slammed Herrera Beutler for voting for the NDAA despite the inclusion of amendments relating to immigration rather than defense, the ostensible focus of the bill.
One amendment grants amnesty to some illegal immigrants by “essentially freezing” the age requirements in the Child Status Protection Act, which already provides protections for the adult children of foreign workers while they seek legal status of their own. Other amendments expand the number of visas the U.S. offers to foreign workers and require the State Department to process refugee applications at “surge capacity.”
Roll Call notes that legislators often insert controversial provisions into the NDAA, knowing that they would struggle to pass them as standalone bills:
The House approved the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act by a 329-101 vote, and the Senate plans to take up its own bill. The Pentagon policy bill is one Congress routinely passes and the inclusion of immigration provisions bodes well for their future at a time when immigration bills rarely move as stand-alone measures.
Additionally, Herrera Beutler declined to cosponsor an amendment sponsored by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) that “authorizes the Army Corps of Engineers to construct a wall on the U.S. southern border with Mexico.”
In this June 4, 2020, file photo, U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., speaks during a Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee hearing. Herrera Beutler, one of 10 Republican U.S. House members who voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, says she will vote to retain Rep. Liz Cheney in Republican leadership. (Al Drago/Pool Photo via AP, File)
This is not the first time Herrera Beutler has drawn the ire of her fellow Republicans on immigration. In 2019, she voted to nullify President Donald Trump’s declaration that the situation at the border constituted a national emergency, despite noting that “President Obama declared 12 national emergencies during his time in office, and President Trump had already declared three prior to this latest one.”
“We need Republicans who understand how border security, amnesty & corporate interests are a key part of the globalist assault on our sovereignty,” Kent added.
You can follow Michael Foster on Twitter at @realmfoster.