Sebastian Gorka, the former aide to President Donald Trump, has said the Democrats are seeking to use immigration to recreate the antebellum plantation, except with "illegal aliens" rather than slaves.
"Let's be honest, it's about votes. It is about illegal aliens getting to vote for Democrats, as they see it, and recreate a Democrat plantation. It is not with slaves, it is with people who they think are going to be beholden to them because they are illegal aliens," Gorka told Lou Dobbs Tonight.
"That's why they don't want voter ID, that's why they don't want a wall. This is all about politics. They don't care less about the human cost. It is about creating a new political plantation for the Democrats," the British-born political strategist added.
Gorka had been asked to opine by Lou Dobbs' stand-in Gregg Jarret on immigration at the southern border, quizzing the former White House official on what he thought of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol statistics showing 109,000 individuals had been detained at the southern border in the month of April.
"When you get Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson go on the record ... saying that this is a national emergency, this is a crisis, I think it is game set and match. This isn't about solving a problem for the Democrats, this is about stymying the key issue," Gorka said. "The president's campaign platform was built initially on the question of immigration reform and the wall. They know that, they know this is key to his re-election," he added.
In March, Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security during former president Barack Obama's second term, received praise from GOP figures and conservative commentators for saying there was a crisis on the southern border.
"We are truly in a crisis," Johnson told MSNBC's Morning Joe two months ago. "On Tuesday there were 4,000 apprehensions. I know that 1,000 overwhelms the system and I cannot begin to imagine what 4,000 a day looks like," he added.
While many on the right viewed Johnson's statements as a vindication of the current administration's hardline stance on immigration, the Obama-era official has also been deeply critical of this White House's approach.
"Notwithstanding the harsh rhetoric coming from the president and his administration, these migrants are still making the basic calculation to come here at levels we have not seen in 12 years," he told NPR in April. "It's the underlying conditions that are the principal reason why migrants make this basic judgment to try to come here," Johnson added.
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About the writer
Callum Paton is a staff writer at Newsweek specializing in North Africa and the Middle East. He has worked freelance ... Read more
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