(The Center Square) – Polls across the U.S. find that Americans cite illegal immigration as a top-two issue facing the country, with inflation and the economy first.
California’s District 13 Congressional candidates don’t address immigration on their campaign sites. Incumbent Republican John Duarte said in a KQED interview that he supports immigration reform as a step to securing the border. In discussing his dissenting vote from a GOP immigration bill, Duarte explained:
“…if you want to put the border security in place, we need a DACA fix…If you want to force me to become a policeman at my own company with families who have been relying on working at my company for decades, and you want to do the same thing to every other family and every company throughout the Central Valley greatly. Then let’s talk about a guest worker program.”
The United States offers a program called myE-Verify which allows immigrations to confirm their work eligibility. It’s a voluntary program. Employers cannot force applicants to use myE-Verify. (myE-Verify is for individuals while E-Verify is for employers.)
Duarte opposed an effort to criminalize employers who used E-Verify but later found that employees who hadn’t opted into the program were ineligible to work.
The Democratic challenger, Adam Gray, elaborated on his favored policies for directly supporting immigrants in an interview with The Sacramento Bee:
“I support comprehensive immigration reform including a path to permanent residence and citizenship. I will fight to protect DREAMers by reauthorizing and expanding DACA. I’ll advocate for policies so law-abiding immigrant families don’t live in fear that mom or dad won’t come home at night because they were deported.”
As a California Assemblyman, Gray voted for a 2017 bill that prohibited landlords from disclosing tenants’ immigration status. That bill became law in October 2017. Gray also voted for bills that would have authorized Medicaid benefits for undocumented children and authorized undocumented families to claim the earned income tax credit. Niether bill became law.
In 2023, Duarte co-sponsored the DIGNIDAD bill. It’s a package of reforms that include:
Establishing a path to permanent resident status for DreamersEnshrining protections for unaccompanied children detained at the borderEstablishing the Dignity Program, which defers deportation under certain circumstances
The DIGNIDAD bill also has several provisions for security funding, including Customs and Border Patrol agent hiring and equipment at the border.
Gray elaborated on his positions on the security of immigration reform in his interview with The Sacramento Bee:
“That [reform] means more border patrol agents to go after human trafficking rings and cracking down on the cartels running drugs like fentanyl into our country. It means working with law enforcement to deport violent criminals, Homeland Security to disrupt terrorist operations and judges to bring traffickers to justice.”
Neither campaign responded to The Center Square’s request for comment.
