Politics

Trump’s Pick To Oversee Visa Worker Programs Found Border Security Measures ‘Troubling’

REUTERS/Mike Segar

Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
Font Size:

Fast food executive Andy Puzder is reportedly Donald Trump’s choice to serve as secretary of labor. Puzder has espoused immigration views at odd’s with Trump and the Department of Labor plays a prominent role in immigration enforcement.

The CKE Restaurants CEO spoke at a 2013 AEI forum titled: “Essential workers? Less-skilled immigrants and the changing US economy.” At that event Puzder praised low-skilled immigrant labor. “Our Hardee’s restaurant operators in the midwest and the southeast often use the labor force in California as an example of what they would like their labor force to be.”

He later said at that event that no provisions in the 2013 Gang of Eight immigration bill, which Trump fervently attacked on the campaign trail, would hurt him as a CEO. Puzder did add that “as an American more than as a CEO” he found the border security measures in the immigration bill “troubling.” Puzder said that doubling the amount of border security officers would be “overkill.”

CKE Restaurant owns Hardee’s and Carl Jr’s among other fast food chains. The Wall Street Journal and CNN both reported Thursday that the long time Republican donor will be named as Trump’s labor secretary.

In a video released after he was elected president, Trump said, “I will direct the Department of Labor to investigate all abuses of visa programs that undercut the American worker.” During the campaign, Trump called the H-1B program, which the Department of Labor oversees, “a cheap labor program.” The president-elect added that it exists “for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay.”

“They’re very hard working, dedicated, creative people that really appreciate the fact they have a job they have a job whereas in other parts of the country we get people who say, ‘I can’t believe I have to work this job,'” Puzder said at the AEI event about the California labor force. “With the immigrant population you always have a thank god I have this job kind of attitude.”

Puzder also donated to a super PAC supporting Jeb Bush in 2015 and told reporters that Republican presidential candidates should follow the former Florida governor’s “lead” on immigration. He said, “People vote with their hearts … our values dictate we should be the party of immigration reform.”

“Puzder, of course, praised the Schumer-Rubio bill which would have almost tripled H-1B visas; visas that have brought in millions of semi-skilled foreign guest-workers over the years, replacing our own professionals and crowding out our own graduates,” Ian Smith, an attorney with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, told TheDC. He added, “What’s problematic for Trump is there’s precious few career government officials, politicians, or business elites, that don’t want to erase our borders. These groups belong to a special class, one that’s far above the working and middles classes.”

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel