The ads adopt a confrontational approach toward Republicans. | M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO AFL-CIO targets GOP on immigration

The AFL-CIO is poised to launch a high-dollar television campaign assailing House Republicans for their inaction on immigration reform, in an attempt to ensure that the congressional GOP pays a price if it continues to stall on an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system, strategists for the labor giant told POLITICO.

The powerful progressive group will spend a seven-figure sum on a wave of ads on Spanish-language television, broadcasting some of the most incendiary remarks conservative lawmakers have made about immigrants.


One ad shared with POLITICO shows Texas Rep. Lamar Smith calling the popular DREAM Act “a nightmare for the American people” and quotes Georgia Rep. Paul Broun saying undocumented immigrants are “criminals and they need to be treated as such.” Iowa Rep. Steve King makes an appearance in one clip, referring to illegal immigrants “hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”

And in multiple commercials, the AFL-CIO highlights Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks’s statement that he would do “anything short of shooting” undocumented workers in order to crack down in illegal immigration.

The ads adopt a confrontational approach toward congressional Republicans that some immigration reform groups have avoided so far this year. Other organizations, including conservative-leaning groups like the Chamber of Commerce and the American Action Network, have advocated for immigration reform on the center-right by casting the issue as a pro-business measure and emphasizing border protections in the reform bill approved by the Senate.

These new commercials are aimed at raising the stakes for the whole Republican Party in the debate over immigration, said AFL-CIO strategist Tom Snyder, who’s heading up the group’s campaign on comprehensive reform.

He said the harder-edged tone of the ads reflect a determination to increase the political pressure on reform opponents currently stonewalling immigration legislation. Republicans suffered badly from their lopsided loss among Latinos in 2012; the AFL-CIO aims to ensure that happens again in 2014, particularly if reform dies in the House.

“We feel it’s time, and more than appropriate, to tell the Republicans that if they don’t act on immigration reform, we plan to exact a price in upcoming elections,” Snyder explained. “We want to spur House Republicans into action on immigration reform this year, right now, and we’re going to hold Republican congressmen responsible for their hostile statements about Latino immigrants.”

The first wave of ads will run in the Atlanta, Denver, Orlando, Fla.; Bakersfield, Calif., and Washington D.C. media markets. They will appear on both Univision and Telemundo, and run in English in the D.C. area.

Those markets include several congressional districts with competitive 2014 House race and touch important statewide elections in Georgia, Colorado and Florida.

Snyder said this is only the beginning of the next phase of the AFL-CIO’s political action on immigration.

“This is just a beginning. This is a down payment,” Snyder said, adding: “The Republican Party may control the immediate fate of immigration reform, but Latinos and other immigrants control the long-term fate of the Republican Party.”