On the Border, Radical Ruben Gallego’s “Shift” to the Center is as Fake as Biden’s

The Democrat running to replace Kyrsten Sinema in the U.S. Senate wants to open the border up, not seal it

Arizona Senate candidate Ruben Gallego (D) sells himself as a commonsense candidate shifting to the center on border security and immigration. But his moderating rhetoric and proposals come from political necessity, and he’s offered no evidence that he’s changed his radical immigration views.

Arizonans today are being devastated by the Democratic Party’s border crisis. Arizona now leads the country in drug overdose deaths, driven largely by fentanyl manufactured in China and smuggled across the United States-Mexico border.

The crisis has spilled into every corner of the country and changed public opinion nationwide. 41 percent of Americans now believe immigration should be reduced—higher than at any point since 2014. A recent poll discovered that 72 percent of Arizonans surveyed felt the federal government was “weak or very weak on controlling the border.”

As recently as 2022, Gallego touted himself as a progressive. Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) even called him one of the leaders of the progressive movement.

The current climate, however, poses a threat to leftists like Gallego. Even President Joe Biden’s advisors are pressing for policy moderation on crime and immigration as voters turn progressives out of office in some of the most liberal corners of the country.

In this environment, Gallego is trying to get in front of the wave of dissatisfaction. He let his membership in the Congressional Progressive Caucus lapse, even distancing himself from the label. Media outlets sympathetic to Democratic policies have amplified his reinvention—or obfuscation—claiming he “redefines himself” and “now presents himself as a centrist Democrat”

This mirrors what Restoration News has reported in Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D), who for years slammed Republican efforts to stop illegal immigration and voted against border security measures. Yet, last year, she bragged about spending $5 million to prevent illegal immigration and mobilized the National Guard, vowing “to fix the migrant crisis where the federal government will not.” Yet this did nothing tangible to seal the border, and her Office of Refugee Resettlement reportedly funneled money to support refugees in Tucson.

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Fake Measures

This month, Gallego introduced two bills in Congress: the Direct Hire Act—which would beef up the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—and the Screening Efficiency Act—which aims to reduce wait times for refugee court hearings.

Neither of his “two commonsense bills” entails reducing the volume of immigration or asylum seekers. At a recent town hall, he expressed a desire to open up more legal pathways for immigrants so border patrol “can really focus on those bad guys.”

His proposals don’t even go as far as the bipartisan Senate deal that failed earlier this year. That bill, crafted by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and James Lankford (R-OK) would have raised the standards for asylum applicants—the loophole used by most migrants—and allowed the president to shut down the border under certain conditions.

Like Gov. Hobbs’ about-face on border security, Gallego’s faux moderation on the border aims to improve optics during election season rather than fix the problem his party created as a matter of policy. If his bills passed, they would only make systematic mass migration less messy.

Throwing more money and personnel into a crisis helps if the government also implements preventative measures for the future. For instance, if the government provided funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to hire more workers during a national disaster from a chemical incident, the public would also expect it to craft policies to prevent future chemical incidents.

CIS and ICE do need additional agents and resources. Likewise, providing more efficient screening to migrants to speed up the court process would help. These, however, are costly fixes with no end in sight until Congress enacts more permanent solutions like a border wall and immigration restrictions.

Gallego’s True Views on Immigration

Gallego’s support for increased border funding does not indicate a shift in his support of mass migration. He views immigration as the glue that makes America great and allows it to remain so.

Gallego has often called America’s immigration system “broken.” The legislation he supports and his statements clarify that he views it as broken because mass migration does not occur more quickly and smoothly.

He elaborated on his immigration views in October 2015, at a symposium on the 1965 Immigration Act.

In his speech, Gallego blamed Americans for illegal immigration, visa overstays, and drug smuggling. Allegedly, their failure to “respond to pretty basic labor demand,” which would involve “allowing people to come in and come out flexibly,” causes these problems.

He praised chain migration but argued that the surge in immigration since 1965 has not occurred fast enough. He justified his father’s repeated illegal entries, however, because his father had no family members in the U.S. and couldn’t take advantage of chain migration. He even cited his father’s illegal immigration as a factor in creating his “viewpoint of America.”

Gallego offered nothing but praise for mass migration’s economic effects. He even criticized Americans for not seeing migrants’ willingness to work menial jobs as a way to make money. He warned that if the country limits immigration, it could dampen its entrepreneurial and innovative spirit. He also advocated increasing the foreign population to fund financial obligations and keep the country’s birthrate above replacement levels.

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Pro-Open Borders Actions

Gallego’s immigration actions before and after his purported tack to the center promote a policy of responsibly managed open borders. This includes plenty of immigration agents to facilitate the free flow of economic migrants and plenty of tax dollars to third parties to help the migrants settle after they cross.

For years, Gallego has supported amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.

In 2015, he co-sponsored a bill that would replace the word “alien” from the U.S. code with “foreign national,” thereby watering down “illegal alien” to “undocumented foreign national.”

During former President Donald Trump’s administration, he called deporting illegal aliens “un-American” and contrary to “the values our country was founded on.”

Gallego claimed that the proposed border wall was never about border security but rather seeking “to prey on the fears of Americans made anxious by decades of social and demographic change.” He referred to the motivation behind it as “a symbol of racism” and argued that it stirred “one of the worst segments of the United States in terms of some deep-seated racism towards people that are Latino.”

As he revealed in the immigration symposium, however, a border wall doesn’t only irk him symbolically. He believes in “allowing people to come in and come out [of the country] flexibly,” which a wall would inhibit.

After Biden took office in 2021, Gallego signed a letter opposing the continuation of Title 42, which provided relief to the country by limiting asylum seekers because of COVID-19.

The letter also criticizes plans to force migrants to apply for asylum in transit countries, reminding Biden that he “can and must continue to expand legal pathways for migrants and refugees into the United States.” It calls “this right” to immigrate a “pillar of the post-war international order to which the United States has committed itself.”

After Title 42 ended, Gallego supported Biden’s sending 1,500 troops to the border, a move he previously criticized Trump for. But rather than craft a policy to reduce border crossings—which would reduce the need for troops—he urged the administration to provide funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for a long-term solution.

After Title 42 ended, Gallego sent multiple sharply-worded letters to the administration and Congress seeking more funding for first responders and border communities. Mainstream media have tried to portray this as a shift to the center. But his solutions are like mopping a floor without turning off the faucet to the overflowing sink. For instance, he’s called for massive funding of migrant shelters without halting the flow of migrants.

Restoration News has documented how 501(c)(3) “charities” that receive private funding from George Soros and other leftists provide financial and legal assistance to illegal aliens to help them skirt immigration law. Gallego has urged the government to provide taxpayer funding and cut red tape for these non-governmental organizations (NGOs). He sharply opposed the Secure the Border Act of 2023, which would have ended taxpayer dollars to NGOs that “facilitate or encourage unlawful activity,” including providing legal services to illegal aliens.

Gallego’s view of America revolves around mass migration and remains far left of center, despite his support of more resources to manage the border crisis. He blames illegal immigration on Americans for not making it easier for migrants to enter—a right migrants allegedly have because of the “post-war international order.” He believes the country owes its entrepreneurialism, innovation, and even its fertility to foreign migrants. Lastly, he chides Americans for not bypassing American labor and exploiting foreign menial labor more often.

First responders on the border do need additional resources. But Gallego’s approach merely manages an open border policy rather than curtail it. His immigration reform goals include increasing legal immigration and giving more taxpayer dollars to government-connected NGOs, many of whom aid and abet illegal immigrants.

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Jacob Grandstaff is a freelance writer in Tennessee. He graduated from the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.