Kentucky Senate Republican candidate Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) has bankrolled prominent Republican sponsors of a recently proposed bill that would provide amnesty to illegal aliens.
Barr hopes to replace the outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), saying, “In the Senate, no one will fight harder to keep the border closed and deport illegals.”
He wrote on his campaign website, “Andy Barr believes we must deport all illegals and close the border.”
The Kentucky Republican also attacked MAGA Republicans who want to deport illegal aliens and curb immigration as “nativists,” in a similar vein to Hillary Clinton accusing Donald Trump of embracing a nativist political movement.
Barr told Red, White, and Bluegrass host Bode Brooks, “At the same time, our agriculture sector, our hospitality sector in Kentucky, they certainly need legal workers, the horse industry, I’ve had the privilege of representing them and the great thing about the president’s policies that will secure the border and keep our communities safe is that it will create the opportunity to streamline our overly bureaucratic legal guest worker programs so that our signature industries have the labor they need.”
The Kentucky Republican remarked, “Some of these ‘nativists,’ frankly, are directly at odds with the agriculture sector in Kentucky. We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws.”
It appears that Barr has financial backed Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and ten other House Republicans that introduced the Dignity Act, a bill to provide amnesty to illegal aliens.
Former Breitbart News Executive Chairman and War Room host Steve Bannon described these Republicans as “traitorous.”
The National Review chastised the bill, writing, “Congress should read the signs of the time and reject this bill as yet another attempt to sneak mass amnesty by an American people who have been demanding law and order for decades.”
The Trump administration shot down this proposal, summarily stating, “The president made it clear he will not support amnesty for illegal aliens in any way.”
It appears that Barr has backed Salazar and many of the lawmakers backing the bill.
Building America’s Republican Representation PAC, Barr’s leadership PAC, has donated $10,500 to Salazar’s congressional campaign since 2020.
Barr has backed the other sponsors of the amnesty bill, including donating:
- $24,000 to Rep. David Valadao (R-CA)
- $14,800 to Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
- $14,500 to Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE)
- $13,000 to Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY)
- $11,500 to Rep. Young Kim (R-CA)
- $7,000 to Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO)
- $6,000 to Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
- $5,000 to Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA)
- $2,500 to Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA)
- $1,500 to Rep. Marlin Stuzman (R-IN)
Jessica Vaughn, the policy director for the Center for Immigration Studies, has said Salazar’s suggestion that Trump owes God a favor and should repay the debt by providing amnesty is “insulting”:
She thinks that that’s what he’s a sucker for, [and for] flattery, and [her] promises that he will be loved more by the people she’s advocating on behalf of … [But] he doesn’t need these people — they’re never going to agree with him on any of his immigration policy goals.
Valadao has long called for amnesty, saying in 2013, “Addressing immigration reform in the House cannot wait. I am serious about making real progress and will remain committed to doing whatever it takes to repair our broken immigration system.”
He even voted against a bill proposed by then-Rep. and now-Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) to stop Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty program.
Bacon has said he backs amnesty to illegal aliens, including those in the DACA program.
“I do think the President’s willing, and I’m surely willing, to have a balanced approach. I personally think people came here as kids, no fault of their own, and we should have a plan for them,” Bacon said in January.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
