“If Carlos Curbelo thinks he can get away with lying to Latino and immigrant families and claiming that he wholeheartedly supports immigration reform, he is dead wrong. Carlos Curbelo’s sham PAC is currying favor with Trump-like Republicans who are clearly anti-immigrant and oppose comprehensive immigration reform. South Floridian Latino families deserve a representative who they can trust to fight for real immigration reform in November.” – Javier Gamboa, DCCC Spokesman
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Curbelo leadership PAC donates to opponents of immigration reform – Miami Herald
By Alex Daugherty
Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock says immigrants should be tracked like Fed-Ex packages. California Rep. Duncan Hunter was one of the first politicians to endorse Donald Trump. North Carolina Rep. Mark Walker proposes using fighter jets to stop illegal immigration.
All three have received money from Florida Congressman Carlos Curbelo’s political action committee — which was established to support Republicans who favor immigration reform.
The PAC, named What a Country (WACPAC), has given money to at least 47 House Republicans since the start of 2015, Federal Election Commission records show. Over half of them voted against continuing to fund Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that gives certain undocumented immigrants temporary work permits and an exemption from deportation. Curbelo said in 2015 that support for DACA, which most Republicans oppose, would be a litmus test for potential WACPAC beneficiaries.
Curbelo, a moderate Republican running for re-election in Florida’s 26th District, supports immigration reform that includes a path to amnesty for undocumented immigrants. He said the 47 Republicans who received money from WACPAC indicated to him in off-the-record conversations that they are committed to immigration reform.
What some of them say on the record is a different story.
“Fed-Ex can track packages coming in here all of the time, we can track people who are coming into the country and we can do that right,” Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock said in 2014. She received $1,000 from WACPAC.
“On the issues of border security, national security and economic security, Trump is exactly right,” California Rep. Duncan Hunter said in February. Hunter sponsored what became known by opponents as the “Donald Trump Act,” which prevents local governments from receiving federal funding if local law enforcement does not alert federal officials about undocumented immigrants. He received $1,000 from WACPAC.
“If you have foreigners who are sneaking in with drug cartels, to me that is a national threat, and if we gotta go laser or blitz somebody with a couple of fighter jets for a little while to make our point I don’t have a problem with that,” North Carolina Rep. Mark Walker said in 2014. He received $1,000 from WACPAC.
Curbelo said all those members of Congress are in favor of immigration reform and will support his ideas.
“When the time comes they will be poised to help us on the immigration issue,” Curbelo said. “I could have just established a generic leadership PAC but I decided voluntarily — I didn’t have to do this — to employ this resource to advance a policy agenda that is important to me.”
Leadership PACs are typically used by politicians to curry favor and build rapport with colleagues through donations. Curbelo was, and still is, adamant that WACPAC is not a typical leadership PAC.
But statements from at least two congressmen who received money from WACPAC indicate otherwise.
Hunter’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, suggested that Curbelo and Hunter’s co-membership on the transportation and infrastructure committee was a major reason why WACPAC donated to Hunter. “I know they have a personal relationship,” he said
Read more here: