Red state Dem faces fury for suggesting illegal aliens should replace American workers
A Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Arkansas is facing scrutiny for comments she recently made on a podcast suggesting that illegal alien workers are more valuable than their American counterparts.
"I want to talk about the fact that our immigration system is backlogged, bureaucratic and doesn't actually help anybody, including American employers who want folks who want to follow the law," Hallie Shoffner said on the "Free Arkansas Podcast" during an hour-long discussion about a wide spectrum of political issues.
Shoffner, a farmer, is running against Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. in the deep red state.
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She continued by saying she had a discussion with a fellow farmer, who she said was a Republican, about foreign labor.
"Labor is a huge issue, especially when you don't have a large workforce," she said. "And every farmer will tell you, 'yeah, at one point we did, or still do, employ undocumented immigrants.'" And it's absolutely ridiculous that these folks are being rounded up because they're hardworking people. They're some of the best people we know."
"And honestly, we'd trade five Americans just for one of them because of how hard they work," she said.
Shoffner then demanded a pathway for illegal aliens to work in the United States legally, claiming "when they're good workers, we pay them well, they're good workers, they spend money here [and] they have family here."
Cotton's campaign accused Shoffner of implying that she has hired illegal aliens.
"Hallie Shoffner’s campaign isn’t denying that she employed illegal aliens," campaign spokesman James Arnold told Fox News Digital. "They’re also standing by Hallie Shoffner’s claim that just one illegal immigrant is more valuable than five American citizens."
"Every Democrat running for Congress needs to answer if they agree with Hallie Shoffner’s belief that illegal aliens are worth more than Americans," Arnold said.
In a response to Fox News Digital, Shoffner's campaign manager Anna-Lee Pittman said the candidate's comments were taken out of context, and accused Cotton of being unwilling to have a conversation to help "fix the immigration system."
Cotton, she said, "spends his days combing through video clips of Hallie Shoffner to find any possible inelegant phrase or line that he can chop up to misrepresent an hour-long conversation and present it with no context," noting that "[i]n this response, Shoffner relayed a conversation she had with another farmer about challenges with labor."
Shoffner once joined the chorus of left-wing calls to defund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"I would vote to defund ICE as it exists right now," Shoffner said in an event June. "Immigration and Customs Enforcement was created not that long ago, and it no longer serves the purpose it was originally created for."
"I would not spend one more dime on ICE, because — not just because of the human dignity issue — but also the fact that it is now the largest law enforcement agency in the country," she said. "It has 10 times the budget of the organization that fights child sex trafficking."
But in a Facebook post earlier this month, the red state Democratic candidate changed her tune.
"I don’t want to defund ICE, I want to reform it," she said.
Immigration is a hotbed issue heading into the midterm elections, as it was two years ago during President Donald Trump's campaign to occupy the White House for a second term.
The Trump administration has carried out immigration operations nationwide to arrest and deport illegal aliens, drawing blowback from Democrat politicians and activists.
Fox News Digital's Alex Miller contributed to this report.