Georgia’s Sixth District election: American workers and immigration enforcement not a priority

Candidates have apparent similar positions: It doesn’t look good for immigration enforcement in Georgia’s special election

Unsurprisingly, national attention being given the tight special election here in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District to replace Dr. Tom Price has so far overlooked the immigration issue.

Some insight on Republican candidate Karen Handel now may save some surprised disappointment from immigration skeptics when the June 20 runoff is over. While it is mostly ignored by the GOP faithful in Georgia – where we host more illegal aliens than Arizona – Republican candidate Karen Handel’s position is much closer to Paul Ryan than to Steve King.

Shorter: So far, she’s a squish.

Handel’s opponent, Democrat Jon Ossoff, working on a campaign budget surpassing $8 million and counting, has predictably, but quietly, taken the standard pro-amnesty position one would expect. “The only real solution is comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders and provides a path to legal status for non-felons who are here without proper legal documentation,” Ossoff told the audience at a pre-primary candidate forum covered by the liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper.

At the same event, former Secretary of State Handel offered a similar and decidedly ambiguous statement on legalization that echoes the “yes, immigration and victims of borders are a problem, but we’ll talk about it later…” response so familiar to those tuned in to the Republican House establishment. “These immigrants have come to our country and blatantly disregarded our laws,” she said. “We cannot, we should not reward that. No amnesty. No ability to vote. Get those borders secure and then deal with that situation. I’m not prepared to talk about hypothetical.”

The “path to legal status” from Ossoff and Handel’s “no ability to vote” is notable in that it sounds like both may be getting some experienced guidance from the “it’s not amnesty if they don’t immediately become Democrat voters” incremental-path-to-citizenship faction of the Gang of Eight crowd. It is easy to imagine the marches protesting “second class citizenship!” and “no taxation without representation!” that would quickly follow passage of a non-citizenship amnesty.

On the “issues” page of her campaign website, Handel has a paragraph on immigration that omits any mention of E-Verify but supports the promised Trump border wall and improving the “reliability of temporary visas.” But it seems that she is on the side of the Chamber of Commerce regarding the beleaguered American workers. She is actually campaigning on creating “a viable guest worker program” and assures us she believes “we should be welcoming of those who wish to migrate to our great country.” Handel doesn’t say how many wishful migrants we should welcome – maybe all of them? BTW: “The current immigration system is broken.” Sound familiar?

Recently endorsed by the Georgia and U.S. Chambers of Commerce, Handel, former CEO of metro-Atlanta’s North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, has a much more detailed section on her website when it comes to “Jobs and the Economy.” There is no mention of E-Verify there either, but we do get this: “I believe that the only way we can grow our economy at a more robust pace is through lower taxes and fewer regulations.”

Along with Georgia’s corporate-funded anti-enforcement GALEO and the ACLU, the Georgia Chamber actively opposed 2011 state level E-Verify legislation. The U.S. Chamber joined La Raza, the SPLC, and a host of open borders, identity politics groups in unsuccessfully challenging Arizona’s 2007 immigration crackdown in the Supreme Court.

Handel, who has raised more than a million dollars since the April 18 non-partisan primary, declined to respond to the NumbersUSA candidate survey on immigration and mailed out an issues survey of her own asking 6th district voters what the issues were – without any mention of immigration.

We have actually heard GOP voters express the hope that if she is successful in replacing now HHS Secretary Tom Price and the Republicans keep the now purple 6th District, Handel will move to the right and adopt a more pro-American worker and beneficial immigration policy position after she is sworn in.

Maybe President Trump asked her about that while he was here in Atlanta for a Handel fundraiser Friday.