As people who are thought to be illegal immigrants continue to move into the area around a high-end beach town that is almost 100 miles from the southern border, a former top Republican in California is sending a strong message to President Biden and his fellow Democrats.
Former floor leader in the California State Assembly Scott Baugh is running to represent the 47th Congressional District in the state. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Baugh said that Biden and his policies are to blame for more Americans living like they are on the border.
“You have an open border, which is really an existential threat to this country, with 10 million illegal immigrants coming across the border since Joe Biden was elected,” said Baugh. “We need to stop that, and we need to reverse course and set this country back on the right path.”
Newport Beach is an upscale town on the coast of Southern California that Baugh wants to serve. Earlier this month, a group of about twenty people suspected of being illegal immigrants got off a boat and ran into the town without being caught.
A video of the event went popular on social media, but Baugh said that things like this “happen regularly in Orange County” and have been happening more and more along the southern coast of California.
“It makes even Newport Beach a border city, if you will, because people keep coming across, illegal immigrants. “But this is a direct result of my opponent’s policies, which give illegal immigrants free health care and other benefits,” he said, referring to state Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat who is running against him.
“All they have to do is land on our shore to get free college, free health care, and other benefits.” “It shouldn’t be a surprise that people keep coming when there is a magnet that draws them in and lets them in illegally,” he said.
“Those policies must stop, and the reason for them to come in must end.” “We also need to make our border safer and have stricter enforcement,” he said.
Baugh also complained about California’s “soft on crime” policies, like Proposition 47, a state initiative that was passed in 2014 and lowered the penalties for some crimes, and laws that stop local police from turning over illegal immigrants to federal immigration officials.
“These rules make crime more likely.” What do you think happens when you don’t police crime? “Because there are no consequences, more people break the law,” he said. “It’s just a result of progressive policies where they don’t want to hold people accountable for their illegal actions.”
If he were elected, Baugh promised that the first things he would do were work to fix the border problem and the country’s growing debt, which he said was the cause of the very high inflation that Biden saw in office.
People who aren’t sure will vote for him because they’re “fed up” with crime, inflation, illegal immigrants, and failing schools and want a better future, he said. The race is expected to be close.
Fox News Digital asked Min for comment. Min stated, “While I’ll actually bring solutions to the table and work across the aisle to address the border crisis in Congress, Scott Baugh’s biggest supporters just tanked the most conservative immigration deal in a generation — a bipartisan, Border Patrol Union-backed agreement that would have funded cutting-edge fentanyl detection at our ports of entry and hired more than 1,500 new border agents and enforcement officers.”
“Baugh has yet to admit the truth: he would have tanked this border deal and stood in the way of our nation’s security interests, just like the rest of his do-nothing party, and voters here in CA-47 will see right through his empty attacks in 2024 just like they did in 2022,” he said.
From 1995 to 2000, Baugh was a member of the state house and from 1999 to 2000, he was the minority leader. He ran against Democratic Rep. Katie Porter for the 47th Congressional District in 2022 but lost by a small margin.
The election for California’s 47th Congressional District is either a “tossup,” a “lean Democratic,” or a “tilt Democratic.”
