Conor Lamb deceives about immigration (Pennsylvania, 18th District)

Conor Lamb is a Democrat running in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District, and he's trying to deceive voters about immigration.

From "Is Conor Lamb the Next Big Democratic Upset?" by Jim Saksa [1]:

In a district dotted with shuttered steel mills, Lamb believes voters will come around to his position if he can hold an honest, earnest discussion. "I think too often the whole issue gets talked about as if we were writing from a blank slate, or we can pick whatever we want, or the government is all powerful," Lamb says. "None of which is true."

There are only four real options on immigration, Lamb explains. One, try to kick every undocumented immigrant out. Two, legalize the Dreamers - undocumented immigrants brought here as children - but try to kick out all the other migrants here illegally. Three, "the Dreamers obviously should stay," and "the other 11.5 million people, who knows how they got here, but they're here, they're in the shadows, that's not really helping anybody, [so] let's find a way to pull them out [of the shadows.]" And then there's four: no change, continue the current policies.

"I really believe that if you present those four options to people, 90 percent choose option three," he says, adding that he also supports increased border security, but at ports of entry, not a wall.

Lamb is trying to trick voters using the deportations false choice fallacy: the false claim that we need to choose between mass deportations and some form of amnesty. Lamb has simply included two additional variants.

The fact is that there are other options, such as attrition. Under that plan we'd ramp up immigration enforcement and reduce incentives for illegal aliens, encouraging many of them to return home. Many illegal aliens left the U.S. during the recent recession, and more would leave on their own if - due to increased enforcement - they couldn't find jobs.

Another option is a repatriation program, at least for DREAMers. See the link for a detailed explanation.

Surely, Conor Lamb is knowledgeable enough to at least know about attrition, right? Yet, he declined to mention it. That's because he's trying to deceive voters now and, if elected, there probably isn't much of a chance he's going to start telling the truth.

Note that Conor Lamb is also using the [living in the shadows]] canard, deceiving about who he's discussing by using the deceptive "undocumented immigrant" term rather than the legally-correct term illegal alien, and promoting not just the anti-American DREAM Act but comprehensive immigration reform. As described at those links, both would greatly harm American students and workers.

Please contact @conorlambpa with your thoughts on how he's deceiving and on how he'd harm his fellow Americans. Also contact @saksappeal and suggest he tries to be a real reporter and not just a transcriptionist.

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[1]
Saksa's post appeared in Politico but he's affiliated with WHYY
politico · com/magazine/story/2018/02/18/conor-lamb-pennsylvania-special-election-profile-217018