02/25/2020
Earlier: Donors Swoop In As Dems Give Trump Free Pass On Immigration
A possible Senate supporter of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act now says he opposes the amnesty. Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford announced Tuesday that he does not support the bill.
I continue to see rumors in the press that I support the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. This could not be further from the truth. My position on immigration has not changed — we need to address the loopholes with our immigration system but I do not support amnesty.
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) February 25, 2020
It was reported last week that he was one of three co-sponsors of the bill. The other two were notorious GOP immigration boosters Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
As VDARE.com has previously reported, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act is an amnesty by another name:
It offers legal status to any illegal who worked in agriculture in the last two years. Those illegal aliens would receive a “Certified Agricultural Worker” visa and be barred from applying for a green card for at least four years. It expands the H-2A program by an additional 20,000 visas to cover other industries, including dairy and meat-packing. The H-2A supposedly covers temporary agricultural workers, but the new bill expands it past its intended area. It also allots 40,000 green cards per year for H-2A visa holders and gives legal status to many illegal aliens convicted of driving under the influence and Social Security fraud…
Mandatory e-Verify is the bill’s only highlight. But it would be imposed only after the Amnesty is fully implemented.
Lankford’s opposition all but assures the bill will not make it through the Senate. Lankford did not hesitate to lead the charge for more refugees last fall. The fact that even he doesn’t want to back the Big Ag amnesty signals hardly any Republicans will back it.
However, not all news from Lankford was good. Lankford also said Tuesday that he fully supports one of the Trump administration’s proposed guest worker expansions. This plan will reportedly increase the number of H-2b visas — which covers non-agricultural blue collar jobs — by 45,000 this year. The current cap sits at 66,000; the increase would mean 111,000 foreign workers would be able to take American jobs this summer. [Trump Administration Plans to Raise Seasonal-Worker Cap, by Michelle Hackman, Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2020]
Lankford fully supports the idea and thinks the cap should be raised even higher.
Sen. Lankford refers to my story about the h-2b visa cap being raised by 45k. "You have permission to do that … and you can go even higher than that." Urges him to do it as quickly as possible. https://t.co/HGtNPMuhgV
— Michelle Hackman (@MHackman) February 25, 2020
The administration is also working on a massive guest worker expansion for the agricultural industry. The White House can count on Sen. Lankford to support these terrible ideas.
The GOP appears wary of amnesty. But, for some reason, Republicans can’t give up their love of replacing American workers with foreigners.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.