Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is offering Democrats the benefit of the doubt on illegal immigration, and in doing so, he is placing himself squarely at odds with the conservative base he claims to represent.
According to Western Journal, Stitt used a recent interview with NPR the taxpayer-funded megaphone of the progressive establishment to argue that Democrats are not trying to convert illegal immigrants into a permanent voting bloc, even as the party loudly champions a path to citizenship in the wake of President Joe Bidens State of the Union address.
conversation took place on the sidelines of the National Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C., where the Republican governor of one of the nations reddest states explained to the left-leaning outlet how America could get back to integrity.
Among his prescriptions was a remarkable show of trust in Democratic motives on immigration, a trust that many conservatives would liken to Charlie Browns repeated faith that Lucy van Pelt will finally hold the football steady. Even my Democrat governor colleagues, theyre not trying to get illegals here to turn them into voters. I dont believe thats what Democrat politicians are trying to do, Stitt said, dismissing one of the core concerns of the right about mass illegal migration and its political consequences.
Stitt went further, attempting to rehabilitate the image of both parties on the issue of immigration, as if the problem were merely one of perception rather than policy. And just like Republicans get a bad rap that people think Republicans dont like immigrants thats not true, he added, before insisting, Theres some common ground that if we sit down together, we can figure this out.
Such rhetoric might sound soothing in a Georgetown salon, but it bears little resemblance to the hard-edged reality of Democratic immigration policy in Washington. To the extent that Democratic governors share a party label, agenda and donor base with their congressional counterparts, there is scant evidence they are meaningfully different and in some cases, blue-state executives have been even more aggressive in embracing sanctuary policies and benefits for illegal immigrants.
If Stitt truly believes his Democratic colleagues are not interested in reshaping the electorate through mass amnesty, he appears to have missed the behavior of the partys leadership in Congress. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has repeatedly used his platform including appearances on MSNBC after the State of the Union to push expansive legalization and to attack enforcement efforts, hardly fits the image of a reluctant or moderate immigration reformer.
Nor is Schumer an outlier within his party, which has spent years undermining border security, demonizing enforcement officers and championing policies that effectively erase the distinction between citizen and noncitizen. Other Democrats have echoed the same themes, pressing for work permits, benefits and eventual citizenship for millions who entered the country in violation of federal law, all while accusing Republicans of cruelty for insisting on basic sovereignty.
Yet Stitt insists that these are the people conservatives should trust to figure this out, as if the last decade of open-borders advocacy had never happened. To accept that premise requires a suspension of disbelief so complete that, as the original commentary quipped, Im Ross Perot.
There is also a clear political subtext to Stitts positioning. Term-limited and eyeing his post-gubernatorial future, he appears eager to brand himself as Not That Kind of Republican the sort of figure acceptable to establishment media and corporate interests precisely because he is willing to blur ideological lines on core issues.
NPR itself underscored this dynamic, noting that Stitt has made his disagreements [with Trump] clear, though he has avoided personal attacks and isnt a member of the never-Trump movement. On policy, one of those disagreements is especially telling: Stitt advocates issuing work visas to people without legal status who are currently employed, a stance that effectively rewards illegal presence and undercuts American workers in the name of pragmatism.
That position places Stitt well outside the conservative mainstream, which has increasingly recognized that endless supplies of low-wage labor depress earnings, strain public services and erode the rule of law. It is no surprise, then, that he finds a friendly platform on NPR, where Republicans who distance themselves from border security and from President Donald Trump are treated as reasonable voices rather than as representatives of their partys voters.
For conservatives, the problem is not merely that Stitt is wrong on the facts of Democratic immigration policy, but that he functions as a validator for a party that has spent years dismantling the nations borders. We know where the Democrats stand, especially on the border: They want to pretend it doesnt exist when theyre in charge, and when a Republican governor helps launder that record through the lens of false bipartisanship, it gives cover to an agenda that weakens national sovereignty.
NPR, for its part, is more than willing to amplify such a message, so long as the Republican in question is not pressing actual conservative priorities like strict enforcement, border walls, and an immigration system that serves American citizens first. The episode serves as a reminder that the immigration debate is not only about Democrats versus Republicans, but also about whether GOP leaders will stand with their voters or seek applause from the very institutions working to transform the countrys electorate and its borders.
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