Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) told SiriusXM hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel on Wednesday evening’s edition of Breitbart News Tonight that the Republican Party’s Never Trump faction opposes measures to combat illegal immigration.
Mansour asked Rohrabacher if Republicans should bring more national attention to the issue of illegal immigration. She asked, “Do you think that this is an issue that the national GOP can pick up? It seems like a winning issue for everyone. It’s a simple thing that ordinary Americans can attach to. This is what Donald Trump got elected on.”
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Rohrabacher pointed linked Never Trumpers with Republicans supportive of amnesty for illegal immigrants. He replied, “I hate to tell you this, but we have the Never Trumpers, and they have a lot of influence on our party, and then we have people who always were opposing anyone who was trying to fight against illegal immigration. These people actually supported amnesty within the Republican Party because you have the country club set who wants cheap labor. … Several people in the Republican Party — the Never Trumpers — bear some of this blame themselves.”
Rohrabacher assessed a political shift within California over the issue of illegal immigration. He said, “I believe there’s a mobilization going on because we’ve finally broken through the liberal media, the ones who just want to say we’re against immigrants rather than the illegal immigrants. There’s going to be a shift in California politics, right now, because of this issue.”
Rohrabacher highlighted the killing of Kate Steinle in 2015 by an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times — and the subsequent acquittal of her killer on charges including murder — as a flashpoint in what he described a changing tide of popular opinion among Californians regarding illegal immigration.
Rohrabacher said of the acquittal of Steinle’s killer by a San Francisco jury, “The injustice of that, the stupidity of that, has finally captured the attention of well-meaning Democrats who’d gone along with this far-left liberal clique that runs their party.”
Rohrabacher added, “It’s clear to everybody that it’s bringing down out quality of life in California. The education levels are just going right through the floor. Our neighborhoods aren’t safe. The healthcare that our people use, you go into an emergency room and you have to wait hours because there are bunch of people who don’t speak English. It’s dawning on people that this is really bad. Put the fact that we’re not even allowing the criminals to be deported on top of all of that. I think we’ve reached the tipping point. It’s going our way now and I think it will continue to go our way.”
Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live Monday through Friday on SiriusXM’s Patriot channel 125 from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific).
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.
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