See also: GOP Immigration Cucks Crawling Out Of Holes, Despite Massive Base Disapproval
“I think what happened at the border with finding 51 dead migrants in that tractor trailer is what I would call a ‘Uvalde moment,’” Democrat Senator Dick Durbin said of that horrific event in San Antonio, Texas. “I hope it sparks an interest in finding a bipartisan approach to dealing with immigration.” Significantly, the Republican he’s started Amnesty talks with is Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina [Durbin Says the Horrifying Deaths of Migrants Found in a Tractor Trailer Should Be an “Uvalde Moment” for Immigration Reform, by Andrew Desiderio, Politico, June 29, 2022]. Tillis is often overlooked, but he’s quietly built a reputation as one of the worst Republican senators on immigration. Hardly any Republican can equal his zeal in pushing this treason against the Historic American Nation. His continuing influence within the party shows just how far the GOP must go before it becomes a genuine America First party.
To demonstrate just how bad Tillis is on immigration; a little history is in order. As a North Carolina state representative in 2013, he aggressively pushed immigration sellouts. One measure greatly expanded Guest Worker programs that allowed seasonal workers to stay even longer and be available to all industries. When Republican Gov. Pat McCrory vetoed the bill, Tillis, the House Speaker, led the legislature in overriding it.
The Tarheel State’s House also failed pass a measure to crack down on illegal immigration. His chief Senate primary opponent, Greg Brannon, explained:
If Republicans want to retake control of the US Senate we cannot nominate a candidate who will go along with the DC establishment and push through Amnesty. My primary opponent has supported efforts to allow illegal immigrants to skirt immigration laws.
[More money, more problems for Thom Tillis, by John Frank, News & Observer, April 2, 2014]
Unfortunately, Tillis won the primary and the Senate seat in 2014, which invited hosannas from immigration enthusiast Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, Arizona’s two senators. Both saw Tillis’ win as a win for Amnesty. Thankfully, their optimism was misplaced: Amnesty failed. [McCain: N.C. results good news for GOP, migrant reform, by Dan Nowicki, Arizona Republic, May 10, 2014].
But that hasn’t stopped Tillis from trying to muscle through more bad immigration legislation almost every year since his election. Here’s the timeline:
Ever since taking office in 2015, he’s loudly advocated more foreign workers and more leniency toward illegal aliens. That year, he demanded that Homeland Security release more H-2B visas because they were “vital to the survival of North Carolina’s seafood industry.” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services complied [Tillis: Release Of Additional H-2B Visas Will Help North Carolina Workers And Businesses, Tillis.Senate.Gov, July 5, 2015].
Tillis nearly broke his arm patting himself on the back for his herculean effort to legalize illegal aliens and increase guest workers:
While Senator Tillis opposes amnesty, he believes both parties can work together in order to secure the border, address the status of the undocumented population, and support commonsense reforms to the nation’s legal immigration system that would support American businesses and jobs.
[Tillis Pursues Bipartisan Immigration Reforms, Tillis.Senate.Gov, December 20, 2016]
A key talking point: His willingness to join Democrats in selling out his own constituents by importing cheap foreign labor. His actions proved these claims correct.
Early that year, Tillis proposed an Amnesty that would please moderates in both parties. His plan would still have given some form of legal status to all illegals while throwing in some security measures. His goal: get something to President Trump’s desk. That plan failed [Tillis to continue push for bipartisan immigration reform, by Joe Marusak and Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, February 11. 2017].
He also cosponsored a bill to give more visas to Afghans. And during the 2017-18 battle over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Tillis cosponsored a bill that would have given millions of illegal aliens a “pathway to citizenship.” Republican architects of the sellout said it was a good deal because it didn’t allow the illegals to sponsor relatives to come to the U.S. That’s hardly a reward for the GOP’s base. Tillis was one of five Republican negotiators who wanted the GOP to accept anything the Democrats offered.
Tillis continued his campaign for more cheap foreign labor. He pushed for more H-2B agriculture workers because North Carolina was supposedly suffering a shortage, and “American workers in North Carolina can’t make a sustainable, living wage” in the jobs those foreign workers would do [Republican Senator: My State’s Economy Needs Immigration Reform, New American Economy, July 19, 2017]. You’d think the solution would be to raise wages, not import an army of foreigners willing to work for serf wages, but anyway, Tillis held up Trump’s nominee for director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to extract more H-2B visas from the administration.
Tillis opposed mandating E-Verify nationally because it would hurt Treason Lobby businesses, and right after midterm elections, Tillis led an effort to double the number of annual H-2B visas from 66,000 to a whopping 132,000. Like most of Tillis’s harebrained ideas, this one, thankfully enough, went nowhere. But Tillis did sign two letters that year urging Congress and President Trump, respectively, to issue more H-2B visas.
The following year, Tillis was set to cosponsor the Farm Workforce Modernization Act that would have legalized millions of illegal-alien agriculture workers. It has passed the House twice but has never been formally introduced in the Senate. If it does make it to the Senate, Tillis will back it to the hilt.
Tillis is a weak sister on border security, too. The same year, he wrote an op-ed to oppose Trump’s declaring a border emergency and using Pentagon funds to construct a border wall. The expenditure, he claimed, would violate the Constitution’s separation of powers [I support Trump’s vision on border security. But I would vote against the emergency, Washington Post, February 25, 2019].
But when it appeared that Trump would endorse his primary opponent, Tillis changed his tune and voted for the declaration [Tillis changes vote, supports Trump on border emergency, by Matthew Daly and Gary D. Robertson, Associated Press, March 14, 2019]. In a typically weird move, Trump then endorsed Tillis, which helped sink any primary challengers [Trump endorses Tillis in North Carolina, by James Arkin, Politico, June 25, 2019].
Last year, Tillis teamed with Texas Sen. John Cornyn to offer a limited “DREAMer” Amnesty that would legalize only those illegals who signed up for DACA, not all illegal aliens who came to the U.S. as minors. Democrats rejected that as insufficient.
Judging by this record, Tillis deserves a much lower NumbersUSA score than his B career rating, which doesn’t convey his dogged pursuit for cheap foreign labor and Amnesty.
And immigration isn’t Tillis’ only weakness. He’s also one of the most vociferous Republican supporters of “criminal justice reform” aka Jared Kushner’s jailbreak bill, and actually touts this record on his Senate page:
Thom has been a longtime advocate of criminal justice reform and has been instrumental in successfully implementing criminal justice reform at both the state and federal level.
The webpage even lists his “achievements”:
The Frist Step Act sprung more than 100 violent felons and sex offenders from prison. It and laws like it led to America’s present crime wave [Violent criminals and sex offenders released early due to 'First Step Act' legislation, by Gregg Re, Fox News, July 23, 2019].
After the martyrdom of St. George Floyd, Tillis intensified his pro-criminal activities. He cosponsored Sen. Tim Scott’s “JUSTICE Act,” which would have hamstrung law enforcement and established civilian commissions to investigate how police affect blacks. Democrats rejected the bill because it didn’t go far enough to undermine law and order and permit blacks to commit crimes.
Tillis’s latest shot at the Historic American Nation: joining bosom pal Cornyn and 13 other GOP traitors in voting for the “gun safety” measure that became law after the Uvalde shooting [These are the 15 Republican senators who voted for the bipartisan gun bill, by Emily Erods, New York Times, June 23, 2022]. Maybe that vote will cause the NRA to reconsider its A rating.
The good news for immigration patriots: Few if any of Tillis’ Republican colleagues are interested in an Amnesty…of any kind. They know immigration restriction is a winner in November’s midterms. Even House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, hardly the most trustworthy Republican on Capitol Hill, says Amnesty hasn’t a chance of passing. That won’t stop Tillis, Cornyn, and Co., of course.
Trump’s endorsing Tillis two years ago was a typical mistake, especially given that Tillis subsequently campaigned as if Traitor Joe Biden would land in the White House. One hopes Trump learned his lesson.
And one hopes the GOP has learned its lesson. Legislators such as Tillis demoralize the party’s natural constituency: the Historic American Nation. With the invasion at the southwest border and Biden’s offering 300,000 work visas to Mexicans and Central Americans, now is the time for the party to demand an immigration moratorium, mass deportations, a complete halt to foreign workers, and an end to birthright citizenship.
In other words, if party leaders are serious about retaking Capitol Hill in November, and building a GOP majority coalition, they must give white aka American voters a good reason to vote them. Thom Tillis stands in the way.
Washington Watcher II [Email him] is an anonymous DC insider.
