Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina is the new head of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security. Despite what you might hear from Gowdy and others, it looks like he's weak on comprehensive immigration reform (aka amnesty, aka some sort of large illegal alien legalization program).

From Greenville Online (bolding added, peekURL.com/zhbeUSH ):

[regarding immigration, Gowdy says] "I think you have to find a synthesis between the humanity that I think defines us as a people, and the respect for the rule of law that defines us as a republic"...

Gowdy... says three images come to his mind when he considers immigration: Vietnamese fleeing Communism in the wheel wells of airplanes; Cubans dying on makeshift rafts off the Florida coast; and a woman from Sierra Leone whose hands were cut off because she tried to vote.

"Peoples' desire to improve their lives resonates with me, no matter where they're from," Gowdy said.

...Gowdy said he expects to conduct his first few hearings as fact-finding missions to inform what he hopes will be a Republican-backed immigration reform bill...

...He disputes allegations that illegal immigrants are draining certain government services reserved for citizens, such as unemployment benefits and Social Security. Illegal immigrants don't qualify for such benefits.

And the farmers and growers in his Upstate South Carolina district can't find and keep American employees, so allowing immigrants to work here legally is essential, Gowdy said.

He said deporting all 11 million illegal immigrants would require government action that would "shock the conscience of some of the folks who are most forceful in arguing for it."

"You want them knocking on your front door?" he said. "You want them going to elementary schools and rounding up the kids?"

...[He's non-committal on amnesty right now, but regarding the "path to citizenship" says] "It would depend on what that path involved and depends on the factors you would immediately want to look at," he said. "Law-abidingness, for one. And connection to the community. I'd also be curious as to how many of them desire citizenship."

On the plus side, Gowdy was supposedly giving an A- rating by Numbers USA based on two years as a Congressman. How exactly that happened isn't clear: he's clearly an amnesty supporter. Per the article, he's supposedly opposed the Justice Department suits against Arizona and Alabama and Obama's DACA amnesty.

However, on the minus side there's everything else and lots of it:

1. His call for "humanity" covers up that he's engaging in false compassion: he'd make things worse.

2. Gowdy uses three extreme examples to illustrate immigration, none of which represent the case for almost every single person who comes here illegally. His examples are edge cases at best, a strawman argument and a deliberate attempt to deceive at worst.

3. No "fact-finding missions" are necessary for those who actually oppose illegal immigration and amnesty. What Gowdy seems to be suggesting are photo ops or sideshows designed to promote amnesty (such as of weeping growers whining about their crops rotting).

4. Likewise, an "immigration reform bill" means some form of broad legalization program, and no one who actually opposes illegal immigration and amnesty would support that.

5. Gowdy uses yet another strawman: only those who aren't that familiar with immigration say that illegal aliens are draining (aside from fraud) systems they aren't qualified for. Those who have no power might say such things, but no one with any power does. There are programs that illegal aliens (or their children) do qualify for and there is fraud involving some programs, but Gowdy - for the obvious reason - isn't mentioning that.

6. Then, we start to see a possible money trail as he sticks up for growers in his district. See crops rotting in the fields, jobs Americans wont do, and - for the shortest possible version - "Another Phony Farm Crisis" (link). Gowdy's goal is to make sure that growers in South Carolina have an ample supply of cheap, foreign serfs. Plus ça change.

7. Then, Gowdy engages in the deportations false choice where he scaremongers mass deportations while ignoring the attrition plan. While some people do want to engage in mass deportations, they have absolutely no power. Not content to do that, he baby-waves like any other amnesty supporter.

8. In the final paragraph of the quote, Gowdy seems to be telegraphing support for some form of guest workers program; see the link for the downsides of such programs.

Based on my years of experience reading quotes about immigration, Gowdy is as bad as other supposed conservatives who support massive legalization programs, even if he covers it up better. Based on his quotes above, I wouldn't trust him for a second to oppose amnesty.

Please write @TGowdySC with your thoughts and - even more importantly - do a Twitter search for his supporters and send them the link to this page.