Bruce Rauner Only Wants Refugees Who Are “Truly Refugees” In Response to Migrant Caravan

Photo by H. Michael Miley

If you for some reason haven’t heard, there is a national discourse happening around a “migrant caravan” travelling north through Mexico from Honduras. The size of the caravan and its numbers have been part of wild speculation, and has further been used by the GOP to fire up its base leading up to the midterm elections.

It’s for this reason that journalists have been asking Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Bruce Rauner a lot about the caravan, and his answers give a little more insight into his views on immigration.

“We have a process to help refugees, evaluate refugees, and understand requests for asylum,” Rauner said. “America is a welcoming place for refugees, who are truly refugees, and who truly are seeking asylum for legitimate reasons. And I hope that anyone who’s seeking refuge in America can be properly evaluated.”

A post on CapitolFax.com also points out that he has in the past spoken positively of an E-Verify system, which would be a digital check on citizenship for individuals.

“So that digitally everybody who is looking for a job can be checked in the federal database whether they’re citizens, or whether they have the proper visas, and so they can be prevented from taking a job that should go to an American citizen,” Rauner said on a St. Louis talk show.

The post goes on to point out that although he has said he’s pushing this platform, he has not recommended it to any of the branches of government he is in charge of.

“Since he mentioned E-Verify yet again, I used the “participating employer” search function at the E-Verify website and the only state-related participating agencies I could find were the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (not under his control), the Illinois National Guard, the Illinois State Police Forensic Sciences Command, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (not under his direct control), Illinois State University (not under his control), the Illinois Student Assistance Commission and the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission (not under his control),” Rich Miller at Capitol Fax said.

JB Pritzker, the Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate, has not commented on the caravan but has voiced his support for the DREAM Act back in 2017, and spoke out against Rauner vetoing bills that would protect immigrants earlier this year.

JB Pritzker Statement on Rauner Cowardly Vetoing Bills to Protect Immigrants #ilgov #twill https://t.co/HfxVuOxgJa — JB for Governor Press (@JBforGovPress) August 24, 2018