Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) has endorsed presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and will be joining him on the campaign trail. His support for one of the Gang of Eight bill members puts a spotlight on his own radical immigration statements.
Rep. Gowdy has been a supporter of Pres. Obama’s DREAMer amnesty stating that he would pardon illegal alien minors who came to the U.S.
“When children wander into neighborhood yards, we don’t call that trespassing. When children cry and yell and scream at restaurants or on airplanes, we don’t call that a violation of the noise ordinance. When children eat a grape at the grocery store or eat a piece of candy waiting in line before mom or dad pays for it we don’t have them arrested for petty larceny,” said Gowdy during a 2013 Congressional hearing.
Gowdy elaborated on his position, stating:
“What I prefer to do is look at the 11 million in natural subgroups. You have what are called the DREAM children. I would think most people would advocate for an accelerated path to citizenship for children who, through no fault of their own, were brought here at an early age. I would have a shortened path to citizenship for those who serve in our armed services. And then you can have a sliding scale [to determine which illegals get citizenship] based on your years in the country and contributions you made to society.”
He has also been praised by open border advocate, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who said, “what I think Trey has is a fundamental sense of fairness… Once you can set that aside, vis-a-vis immigration, you can devise a world of justice and fairness. It’s clear he has a set of values.”
In a 2013 radio interview with Laura Ingraham Rep. Gowdy tried to make the case for increasing the number of worker visas during a time when many Americans were unemployed saying:
“I will go on another plant tour this afternoon. And Laura, I wish you would come to South Carolina and go on plant tours with me, and ask the very first question I ask: “Do you have any openings?” And the answer nine times out of ten is yes.”
When Ingraham pressed him on American wages he responded by perpetuating the false argument that these foreign workers do jobs Americans will not do.
“Well, it’s not just “What are you paying?” It’s what are we as a culture paying people to do nothing. If you can make more money not working then that becomes a moral issue and it depends on whether your policies incent the inherit value of work… Look at agriculture. Come talk to my farmers about—look at the current visa—you have to offer it to an American worker. It is actually costlier to hire an immigrant and yet almost invariably the workforce is immigrant. Why is that? Why will Americans not pick blueberries, or peaches or lettuce? Talk to Jeff Denham in California. Asparagus is rotting in the field. I think there are certain jobs we just don’t bring our children up to do.”
Gowdy also joins Speaker Ryan and Sen. Rubio as a supporter for the H-2B visa. He joined Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) in praising DHS when it resumed processing H-2B applications after the program was temporarily frozen.
“We are happy to see DHS and Labor heard the concerns of businesses in South Carolina and across the country that depend on the H-2B visa program for reliable, seasonal workforce,” Gowdy said.
According to Pew, 92 percent of the GOP electorate and 83 percent of the American electorate as a whole, would like to see immigration limited in the future. This puts supporters for higher immigration levels such as Sen. Rubio and Rep. Gowdy at odds with a large part of their party’s base.
Read more on this story at Breitbart.com.
