Speaker 1: As one Representative gave Evans from Colorado's eighth congressional District
Speaker 1: is joining me by phone in between meetings because he's
Speaker 1: very important. Representative Evans, first of all, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: I'll always get to be on with you. And I
Speaker 2: would say I'm very, very busy would probably be how
Speaker 2: I would characterize it.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, busy busy man, let's talk. We're jumping right
Speaker 1: in because I know I don't have you for that long.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Dignity Act for a moment. I've
Speaker 1: been lurking in some Republican Facebook groups kind of just
Speaker 1: gauging the room right to see as people are discussing this,
Speaker 1: and you can imagine, as you've probably already seen, you
Speaker 1: have two camps. One camp says this is amnesty hard pass,
Speaker 1: never going to happen. And then you have other Republicans
Speaker 1: who are saying, look, this is where I am. We
Speaker 1: finally got a little modicum of border security. There's never
Speaker 1: been a better time in the last twenty five years
Speaker 1: when we had decent border security, with more money committed
Speaker 1: to border security to really work on immigration reform. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you're in the second camp. Let's address that amnesty accusation
Speaker 1: that is being made.
Speaker 2: Yeah, first and foremost, it's absolutely not amnesty. There's no
Speaker 2: pass to citizenship in this bill. The end period barnup,
Speaker 2: no pass to citizenship, and there's no free handouts in
Speaker 2: this bill. What the Dignity Act does is it sets
Speaker 2: a hard date. That date is before Biden. It's a
Speaker 2: December of twenty twenty. Anybody that was in the country
Speaker 2: before that date, and you got to meet a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of other criteria. Can't be taking federal benefits. You
Speaker 2: have to be willing to pay any back taxes for
Speaker 2: anything that you've taken under the table. You have to
Speaker 2: pass both a criminal and a security screening. So what
Speaker 2: all of these requirements mean is that really the only
Speaker 2: people that are even eligible to apply from the get
Speaker 2: go are people that, Okay, maybe they're in the country illegally,
Speaker 2: but they haven't been committing crimes, they haven't been causing problems,
Speaker 2: they haven't been stealing federal welfare dollars. That means they've
Speaker 2: been working. And as you said, the immigration system has
Speaker 2: been kind of a mess for several decades. I wish
Speaker 2: this wasn't the case, but here's some of the numbers,
Speaker 2: forty two two percent of the ag labor force in
Speaker 2: the United States is illegal. I don't know the percentages
Speaker 2: for some of the other big industries, you know, construction, housing,
Speaker 2: things like that, but we know there's a significant percentage
Speaker 2: of the labor force in these industries that is here illegally.
Speaker 2: But other than that, they're working hard, they're supporting American industry,
Speaker 2: they're building things here in the United States, and so
Speaker 2: how do we soort this problem out? That's what the
Speaker 2: Dignity Act says is if you meet all of those
Speaker 2: different requirements, you're working hard, not causing problems, willing to
Speaker 2: pay back taxes, all these other different things that you
Speaker 2: have to do, then no amnesty. Right off the bat.
Speaker 2: You got to pay a thousand dollars fine in order
Speaker 2: to enter into a seven year program. You can call
Speaker 2: it a program. If we're going to talk in terms
Speaker 2: of fine here, you can call it something like probation
Speaker 2: something like that. But you enter into a seven year
Speaker 2: program where you renew every year. So if you're not
Speaker 2: meeting these requirements, you start not paying your taxes, you
Speaker 2: get in trouble. You're taking money under the table. Guess
Speaker 2: what you're tossed out, and every year that you renew
Speaker 2: in this program you have to pay another thoughlean dollars.
Speaker 2: This program doesn't cost the American citizens anything. Not only that,
Speaker 2: when you enter the program, you agree to have your
Speaker 2: wages garnished at a one percent rate, and all of
Speaker 2: that money then goes directly to American citizen workforce training.
Speaker 2: Other things that this bill does national everify, everify as
Speaker 2: the federal program by which employers can see if somebody
Speaker 2: is legally eligible to work in the United States. Right now,
Speaker 2: it's optional. This bill makes it mandatory. This bill puts
Speaker 2: into federal law the self deportation mandates. This bill says,
Speaker 2: if you do not have legal status to work in
Speaker 2: the United States, you have to self deport under penalty
Speaker 2: of federal law. So it really gets the conversation going
Speaker 2: about what do we do with the folks who are
Speaker 2: in the United States, have been here for a while
Speaker 2: and again are working jobs, supporting American industries, and want
Speaker 2: to have a path forward not for citizenship but for
Speaker 2: work visa that they only get by renewing every seven
Speaker 2: years in the seven year program, while paying a bunch
Speaker 2: of fees and having all sorts of other supervision.
Speaker 1: So that was one of my questions that I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask because how much of this, if any? Because
Speaker 1: I have not read the bill, I figured this is
Speaker 1: the jumping off point. I'll read it when it gets
Speaker 1: massaged a little bit more by Rudy's input. Does this
Speaker 1: do anything about streamlining or updating the legal immigration process?
Speaker 1: Because I have a friend whose son in law is
Speaker 1: going to miss the birth of his first child because
Speaker 1: he can't get his husband visa worked out so he
Speaker 1: can come here from the UK Okay. So the legal
Speaker 1: immigration system is an abject failure at this moment. Does
Speaker 1: this address any of that or is that a situation
Speaker 1: for another bill?
Speaker 2: It helps, and it helps in a couple of ways.
Speaker 2: So in the big beautiful bill that we just passed,
Speaker 2: we actually have funding for more immigration judges because we
Speaker 2: know there's a massive backlog in the immigration system. Where
Speaker 2: the Dignity Act comes in, is it basically also enshrines
Speaker 2: in the law, effectively the remain in Mexico policy to
Speaker 2: where if and again this isn't federal law, this isn't
Speaker 2: executive order like what we've seen with the administration. This
Speaker 2: is putting into federal law that if you want to
Speaker 2: come to the United States, you want to claim asylum
Speaker 2: or anything like that, you have to wait in another
Speaker 2: country outside of the United States while that asylum claim
Speaker 2: is pending. And so that helps to basically streamline and
Speaker 2: give an orderly flow for folks that are claiming asylum
Speaker 2: who want to come to the United States. So that,
Speaker 2: in conjunction with the additional funding for more immigration judges
Speaker 2: that we had in the Big Beautiful Bill, it really
Speaker 2: does impose some reforms in the immigration space so you
Speaker 2: don't have these major backlogs, you don't have these mass
Speaker 2: influxes whenever you have some humanitarian crisis in another country.
Speaker 2: It really does set up rules of the road so
Speaker 2: that we can have an orderly immigration system and try
Speaker 2: to clear a lot of this backlog without big influxes
Speaker 2: like what we saw under the mismanagement of the previous administration.
Speaker 1: Now, I want to talk about the reality on the
Speaker 1: ground politically of a bill like this and the possibility
Speaker 1: that as I said, I mean, I think right now
Speaker 1: is the best time we've had in a very long
Speaker 1: time to talk about serious immigration reform, because politically that
Speaker 1: that has turned into quite the political football in terms
Speaker 1: of I think that was a huge reason that the
Speaker 1: Democrats got walloped in the last election cycle is because
Speaker 1: of unfettered immigration. So they've got to be paying attention.
Speaker 1: But what does the political reality look like. You're going
Speaker 1: to lose some Republicans? Are you going to pick up
Speaker 1: Democrats with this? Have you found people across the aisle
Speaker 1: that are tired of this just being an ongoing political
Speaker 1: football and actually want to solve the problem And are
Speaker 1: there enough of them?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So, I think there's a couple of really important
Speaker 2: things there. First, you mentioned the disaster of the last
Speaker 2: four years and what the new administration has done and
Speaker 2: what we've actually been able to put into federal law
Speaker 2: through the big beautiful bill around I mean forty six
Speaker 2: billion dollars for border wall, right, several billion more for
Speaker 2: border patrol agent recruiting and retention. So we've put into
Speaker 2: federal law a lot of resources to make sure that
Speaker 2: the border stays secured. But as you said, that tends
Speaker 2: to increase the pressure to Okay, we've stopped the problem
Speaker 2: at the border, what do we do with You know,
Speaker 2: it's over eight million illegal immigrants are in the United
Speaker 2: States and working right now. Not just in the United States,
Speaker 2: but they're part of the labor force right now, and
Speaker 2: we have to do something with this at some point.
Speaker 2: So what better time than right now with the Republican
Speaker 2: led House, Senate and presidency that's focused on America first issues,
Speaker 2: Because if we punt on this, as you said, the
Speaker 2: pressure is only going to build, and if we don't
Speaker 2: fix it now, eventually Democrats are going to have some
Speaker 2: power again in Washington, d C. And then they're going
Speaker 2: to make a complete and total mess of this. So
Speaker 2: I say we need to have the conversation, and it
Speaker 2: truly is a conversation. This bill hasn't been assigned. Well,
Speaker 2: this bill doesn't have a date for a committee hearing
Speaker 2: yet definitely hasn't got a date for the House floor.
Speaker 2: So we're still having the conversation about this. This is
Speaker 2: driving the conversation. But if we don't have that conversation
Speaker 2: now with an American first, Republican led House, Senate and presidency,
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean that the pressure to fix it is
Speaker 2: going to go away. That pressure is still there and
Speaker 2: it's going to grow, and if we don't do it,
Speaker 2: Gums are going to make a mess of this the
Speaker 2: next time they have power in DC.
Speaker 1: I agree with that second part. I'm just hoping that
Speaker 1: you you know, one of my frustrations and I understand it,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you do too. Representative Evans would people say, Look,
Speaker 1: I don't want anybody to skip ahead in the line.
Speaker 1: I don't want anybody to get special treatment that other,
Speaker 1: you know, people who've immigrated here legally have not gotten.
Speaker 1: I understand that argument, but I'm also tired of I mean,
Speaker 1: it was like what twenty ten when Obama gave status
Speaker 1: to the Dreamers, and they still are just being They're
Speaker 1: flapping in the breeze like they still have no solid
Speaker 1: footing here in the United States, and it's absurd that
Speaker 1: we haven't been able to make this happen.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to be this.
Speaker 1: Do you think this is a jumping off point for
Speaker 1: a bigger conversation or do you think this bill as
Speaker 1: it is has a chance of passing as it is?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, no piece of legislation in Congress passes
Speaker 2: as it is if you look at the format was
Speaker 2: in when it was introduced to when it navigated its
Speaker 2: way through the House in the Senate, so I'm sure
Speaker 2: it will change. So really both things. Yeah, it's bipartisan.
Speaker 2: It's got Republicans and Democrats supporting this, and it's a
Speaker 2: broad swath of Republicans. You've got Republicans from very very
Speaker 2: moderate districts. We also have a Freedom Caucus member who's
Speaker 2: supporting this bill. And so you have the complete range
Speaker 2: of Republicans that are supporting this a piece of legislation
Speaker 2: because they know the urgency, as you said, that we
Speaker 2: have here. And I'm totally sensitive to the argument about
Speaker 2: cutting in line. And that's why when you read the bill,
Speaker 2: there's a hard date in the bill that this applies to.
Speaker 2: It's not a rolling five year period. It's a hard
Speaker 2: date that says this does not apply to anybody that
Speaker 2: was immigrated illegally to the United States January of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one or later. So when you couple that, you
Speaker 2: know you got to go back five years, and the
Speaker 2: onus is on the individual to prove that this isn't
Speaker 2: government resources that are going to go to proving that
Speaker 2: the individual has to prove it, and if they can't
Speaker 2: prove it, well, then under the self deportation mandate and
Speaker 2: the bill get out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I do think that if you can get
Speaker 1: this sorted out, it will it will change public sentiment
Speaker 1: about this going forward, in my view, because if you say, look,
Speaker 1: we've reformed the system that will allow people to come
Speaker 1: over here and work if they just want to work, right,
Speaker 1: we reformed that, we reform the legal immigration system, then
Speaker 1: the excuse making gets a lot harder to make, simply
Speaker 1: because when we make it easier for people who want
Speaker 1: to come here and take advantage of the American dream
Speaker 1: to do so while making sure we're getting the bad
Speaker 1: actors out. I think most Americans are behind that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that it's literally the national auto of
Speaker 2: the United States, e pluribusunem out of many want. And
Speaker 2: so we know that there's a lot of very, very
Speaker 2: talented people that come to the United States for that
Speaker 2: American dream, and so we want to be able to
Speaker 2: get those best, those brightest, those hard workers, those people
Speaker 2: that come here. I mean, look no further than there's
Speaker 2: a there's a great book about Thomas Nelson Publishers, which
Speaker 2: is one of the biggest publishers of Bibles in the
Speaker 2: in the country. That was that was started by a
Speaker 2: Lebanese immigrant who came to the United States and that
Speaker 2: was his passion. And so as long as we are
Speaker 2: setting a very tough, very rigorous program to be able
Speaker 2: to get those hard working, best and brightest people. And
Speaker 2: if you're not one of those, then sorry, there's not
Speaker 2: a pathway forward. But if you are one of those,
Speaker 2: there is. That is something that helps the United States,
Speaker 2: not just internally in terms of our you know, our
Speaker 2: economy and workforce and stuff like that. But we got
Speaker 2: to remember we're not in a vacuum globally. We've got major,
Speaker 2: major at at the international level, entities like China that
Speaker 2: would very much like to pass up the United States,
Speaker 2: and you serve our position of global leadership, and so
Speaker 2: we need to make sure that we are maintaining our
Speaker 2: position as the global leaders against foreign competitors like China.
Speaker 2: And so when you're able to get the best and
Speaker 2: brightest people from other places that want to come to
Speaker 2: the United States, that gives us a leg up in
Speaker 2: making sure that we're able to beat the Chinese.
Speaker 1: Representative Gabe Evans, I so appreciate your time today. We
Speaker 1: are out of time on late as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: and I hope we can talk more about this in
Speaker 1: then your future.
Speaker 2: Always enjoy being on with you, all right, Thanks