Politics
Dueling PACs gear up for GOP primary wars over immigration
The GOP’s escalating infighting over immigration now has a pair of PACs lining up millions of dollars on opposing sides of Republican primaries across the country.
The dueling pledges turn a congressional fight over Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar’s (R-Fla.) Dignity Act into an electoral proxy war between hardliners and moderates over how far the Republican Party should go on immigration reform. It’s putting the bill’s 20 House GOP co-sponsors in the spotlight.
The Homeland PAC, backed by immigration-restrictionist Republicans, launched last week in an effort to primary some of those co-sponsors. Meanwhile, American Business Immigration Coalition Action, a pro-immigration group, secured $1.2 million to protect them through its Building America’s Economy PAC and hopes to raise $5 million in total, according to plans first shared with Blue Light News.
The Dignity Act, a bipartisan bill, has faced an onslaught of criticism from conservative MAGA influencers and allies of President Donald Trump, who view it as a nonstarter. While the bill doesn’t create pathways to citizenship, it would allow millions of unauthorized immigrants to eventually gain work permits and remain in the U.S. legally.
Republicans like battleground Reps. Gabe Evans (Colo.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) have signed onto the bill. But critics pan it as “amnesty” and signal that the future of the Republican Party hinges on this debate.
“Donald Trump is not going to be around forever,” said Ryan Girdusky, the GOP strategist behind Homeland PAC. “The goal is to focus and to put our efforts into the future, and make sure Republicans know that the demand for stronger borders and for reforms to legal immigration and illegal immigration means something. We are not going to roll over and go back to business as usual.”
The clash is playing out as the White House recalibrates its own message on immigration amid plummeting public perception. The administration has shifted away from using the phrase “mass deportations” in public messaging and says it is focusing on deporting the “worst of the worst.”
“Extreme-right internet influencers have escalated their attacks, and we want to ensure the leadership on commonsense immigration reform are protected,” said Rebbeca Shi, CEO of ABIC Action, whose PAC is seeking to defend Republican co-sponsors of the Dignity Act.
Salazar has defended her bill, saying it offers workers “dignity.” But former Trump adviser Steve Bannon called it the “screw American workers” bill. Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly said the bill “is not going to go over well with the GOP base, with the America Firsters.” And conservative members of Congress, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), slammed the bill as a betrayal to Trump’s base.
Girdusky, whose Homeland PAC is dedicated to “ending the career of every Republican who supports amnesty and sells out the American people on immigration,” won’t reveal which specific lawmakers he’s targeting or how much money he plans to spend. Several of the Dignity Act’s cosponsors are retiring or represent competitive districts, but Girdusky said his group will focus on those in safe-red seats with primary challenges.
“If any of these members have a change of heart and say, ‘Wow, this is actually a terrible bill for American workers and for the border and enriches human traffickers, I’m going to drop my support of it,’ I’m not going to challenge them in a primary,” he said.
Several hardline immigration groups have jockeyed for influence with the Trump administration, hoping to convince the president to keep his promise to enact the largest deportation initiative in history. But leaning into such an approach risks turning off voters, many of whom disapprove of the president’s handling of immigration so far.
New results from The POLITICO Poll shows that Americans’ views of Trump’s deportation campaign remain broadly negative in the three months since its enforcement surge in Minneapolis. Half of Americans, including one quarter of Trump’s 2024 voters, said his deportation campaign is too aggressive.
Shi said her group will defend the Dignity Act’s cosponsors — both Republicans and Democrats — in primaries, as well as Republicans who voted to reinstate temporary protected status for Haitians last week. She believes signing off on a bipartisan immigration reform bill like the Dignity Act would be a smart political move for the White House ahead of the midterms.
“The White House is very sensitive to the polling on this, and the numbers haven’t changed since Minneapolis,” Shi said. “That’s why the next logical step to win in November is to actually have solutions.”
Republicans are pointing to the World Cup in their persistent bid to force Democrats to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Millions of visitors from foreign countries have already begun their pilgrimage to the tournament, which kicked off this week.
“Hosting the World Cup is akin to having 78 Super Bowls in 38 days — a massive undertaking from a national security perspective,” the Senate GOP wrote in a post on X Friday. “Senate Democrats still let FISA 702 expire, hindering our ability to stop potential terror attacks before they happen.”
The law is all but certain to expire today as Congress remains in uproar over Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence. Efforts to secure a short-term extension in the House and Senate both failed Thursday.
And if a terrorist attack happened at the World Cup? “It would be a lot of finger-pointing,” Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) told Blue Light News on Friday. “You should just pull out every stop right now to make sure that there are no problems.”
President Donald Trump announced plans to nominate the more palatable Jay Clayton for the full-time DNI job on Thursday, a choice that garnered immediate approval from Republican leadership.
Democrats, Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social, “are trying to take our national security hostage because of unrelated issues.”
But Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the ranking member of the chamber’s Intelligence Committee, placed the blame for the stalemate squarely on Trump. Negotiations on a long-term extension were well on their way before Trump announced his Pulte pick.
“God forbid, as we move into the World Cup, that something would happen,” he told reporters Thursday. “But if something happens, it lies at the feet of the president.”
Young pushed back. The two-term senator disagreed with Trump’s call to tap Pulte for the interim nod, but he said Democrats are the ones passing up an opportunity to reauthorize the law.
“He could have also passed a 702 reauthorization that very night he uttered those words,” he said. “And he and others chose not to.”
Missouri is not launching a probe into pricing strategies employed by FIFA, a spokesperson from the state attorney general’s office told Blue Light News, as several states playing host to World Cup matches take the organization to task for allegedly misleading fans.
Colbey Stosberg, public affairs specialist at the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, said in a statement that the office is instead focusing on “the unfortunate opportunity it creates for scammers to exploit travelers and match attendees.”
Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium will play host to four games during the World Cup group stage, as well as a round of 32 matchup and a quarterfinal. Argentina will take on Algeria next Tuesday, Kansas City’s first game of the tournament.
“We haven’t received any complaints about purportedly deceptive pricing strategies yet,” Stosberg said. “If we do happen to receive those, we will review the complaint and determine any appropriate actions to be taken.”
On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a new investigation over allegations that FIFA misled fans into spending more money for seats with premium views, only to change the seating maps.
New York and New Jersey launched their own joint investigation into ticket pricing in May. And California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter to FIFA, seeking information “to assess potential violations of California law.”
House Republicans have also endorsed the change, which means the Defense Department rebrand pushed by the Trump administration could become law this year…
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