At an event with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) at the New College of Florida, Gov. DeSantis spoke about young people working part-time jobs.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm going to voluntarily turn it around.
00:02Let's start with you, a question from the audience, Secretary.
00:11What do we do with the use of migrant workers?
00:14I mean, I remember when we were fighting for some of these, you know, E-Verify, the biggest
00:19groups against us were large industries who are using immigrant workers.
00:24And yet, that's also a threat to our security.
00:27What do we do?
00:28Well, yeah, I mean, obviously E-Verify should be mandatory.
00:32Right now, it's voluntary in many parts of the country, so it needs to be mandatory.
00:36Look, this idea, and I keep hearing this, which is, you know, as President Trump and
00:43Tom and others, they're going to deport, they're going to deport the labor force, and that's
00:46going to have a devastating effect on the economy.
00:48I don't subscribe to that.
00:50As Tom has indicated, obviously, they're focusing on criminals and criminal actors.
00:54So whether they work in ag or whether they work anywhere, you want criminals out of your
00:58community, and I think that's critically important.
01:00There are legal ways to get certain groups, agricultural workers, seasonal workers, right?
01:06You got H-2A, H-2B, you got H-1B, high-skilled visas.
01:09You got a number of visa programs that are designed, they're just mismanaged.
01:13They're mismanaged, they've been abused over time, and so, again, this is, we'll come back
01:19to Congress.
01:20Congress actually needs to do its job and actually reform the legal immigration system
01:24so that we have workers here for the economy today, not an economy of three decades ago.
01:32And so it just doesn't work now.
01:33And so if you incentivize workers, if you incentivize employers to come in the country,
01:38get vetted, do your job, and if you're seasonal, leave, come back the next year and have it
01:43repeat over a period of time, you're going to see, you're going to see both migrants
01:48and others take advantage of that, but the system is, is just broken today.
01:53And I think if you talk to anyone that's involved in that or trying to get workers
01:55or anything else, it's, it's absolutely broken.
01:58We need to do our best to protect American jobs at the same time.
02:02And I think that gets lost.
02:03So there's a number of things that could, that can be done, but, and, because I hear
02:07from a variety of groups, this idea that, oh, maybe we shouldn't target this group or
02:11that group because they're really critically important to the economy, I, again, I don't
02:16subscribe to that.
02:17I don't think the economy is going to fall apart because Tom's deporting people.
02:20It just doesn't work that way.
02:22And so there is a way to bring in the right workforce, a skilled workforce or an unskilled
02:26workforce to make sure that, again, we have the economy that we need because, you know,
02:32just from my perch, the United States is the strongest and has the ability to exert power
02:38internationally when we have a strong economy.
02:41Economic security is national security.
02:43So making sure that we have the right workforce, that we have the right economy here, and President
02:48Trump's focused on that, is absolutely critically important.
02:52Making sure that we get the bad people out of the country is a part of that, but making
02:54sure also that we're bringing people into the country on merit-based, right?
02:59Get rid of these diversity visa lotteries.
03:01Get rid of all this, you know, just handing out green cards left and right.
03:04Let's bring people in that are going to contribute, that aren't going to be on welfare as they
03:08come into the country, and focus on that.
03:12And unfortunately, that is a role that Congress has to play.
03:16They're not good at it, unfortunately.
03:18And we'll see if the Trump team can actually push that conversation along, because it needs
03:23to happen.
03:24Well, and...
03:25So, you know, we, when we did RE-Verify, we get reports, hey, there's all these laborers
03:37that looks like they're going.
03:38Our guys would go, they were on these H-2A visas, and so there's no limit to this, right?
03:44People can bring in H-2A workers, and you know, you can...
03:47There's criticism to that program, too, with how it's done.
03:50But when they're bringing in illegal migrants, they're doing that because they can pay them
03:54less than they have to pay an H-2A worker.
03:57That's why they're doing it.
03:58And so, basically, it's a business that is socializing the cost of its operation to taxpayers.
04:06Because you bring in someone illegally, who pays for their health care if something goes
04:10wrong?
04:11You do.
04:12Who pays for their kids' school if they bring in...
04:14Who pays for the kids' school?
04:15Who pays for the effects of traffic accidents, everything?
04:19They don't have insurance, so not them.
04:21You're going to have to bear that cost.
04:23And so, it's a way to just have dirt cheap labor, and then export all the associated
04:31costs with that to the general public, rather than hire people legally.
04:37And you can hire these H-2A workers, but you can hire people illegally for cheaper.
04:41And that's all it boils down to, is just a desire for cheap labor.
04:46So the question is, is just satiating that, is that the best policy for the United States
04:52of America, at the expense of everything else that flows from that?
04:56I don't think so.
04:58And I think we've chosen to go a different way in Florida.
05:01And I also look...
05:02They said when we did E-Verify, we got big resorts, we got all this.
05:06They said, oh, you know, you're not going to be able to hire people or whatever.
05:11And one, that hasn't been the case in Florida.
05:13Yes, we had people that left because of those rules.
05:18But you've also been able to hire other people.
05:20And what's wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now?
05:26I mean, that's how it used to be when I was growing up.
05:30Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when teenagers
05:40used to work at these resorts?
05:42College students should be...
05:44All this stuff, it's like you go $30,000, $40,000 in debt to just take loans, but you're
05:49not expected to work at all.
05:51So I think the priorities have been jumbled.
05:53And I think there's absolutely people that would be able to do.
05:57And then even these legal programs, I mean, I'm sorry, these H-1B visas, that's used to
06:01pay cheaper than Americans.
06:03That's why they bring them in.
06:04They say, oh, it's the best and the brightest.
06:06Well, you know, 75% of H-1B visas come from one country, India.
06:12Why?
06:13Because that's where all the companies are that are like in the process of brokering
06:16these visas.
06:18So it's devolved into a total scam.
06:21You've had situations in Florida where the American workers are training their H-1B replacements.
06:29So they get fired, H-1B gets less money to come in, and then they do.
06:34And the H-1B is indebted to the company.
06:37So if Microsoft brings an H-1B, that person can't just jump to Google or somewhere else.
06:43You have to stay with it.
06:45So that's another giveaway.
06:47And that, you know, they're operating at least ostensibly within the confines of the law.
06:52But there's a notion out there that somehow people think, and a lot of elites assert,
06:57that somehow Americans just don't cut it.
06:59And I don't agree with that.
07:01And we can't agree with that if we are, in fact, the greatest country in the world.
07:06So rule of law will work.
07:10Following the Constitution will work.
07:12And I think our economy will be really, really strong as a result of that.
07:19So I agree with everything that's been said.
07:25Of course, I'm not an import programmer in the export program, so I'll deal with the exports.
07:31But let me give you one real-life example of what happens every day across this country.
07:35And this is a true story.
07:36I put a new roof in my house.
07:37It had a storm damage.
07:38I had to call six different companies before I got a company to guarantee me a legal workforce.
07:43Well, a father and son showed up, and he was hoping I just need a roof repair and not do a whole roof
07:47because the father and son didn't have the ability to do that.
07:50So talking to him, I said, no, I need a whole roof replaced.
07:52So I talked to him, I said, well, how long have you been a roof mason?
07:55Here's what he shared with me.
07:57He employed 20 U.S. citizens to get on the roof, pay them $20, $25 an hour.
08:03But he couldn't win a contract.
08:04He went bankrupt because he couldn't win a contract with these other companies
08:07that illegal aliens are paying $7 an hour to get on the roof.
08:10So he couldn't compete.
08:11So what happened?
08:13He laid off 20 U.S. citizen employees.
08:17That happens across this country every day.
08:21No one hires an illegal alien, I truly believe, either goodness or harm.
08:25They work them harder, pay them less, and undercut their competition.
08:29So this is about American business.
08:31This is about making sure U.S. citizens stay employed.
08:33This is about keeping wages at a certain level, not decreasing wages.
08:38It's the right thing to do.
08:40And there is a way, as Chad said, to bring people in legally.
08:44Congress needs to address that.
08:46If we need a workforce to do that type of work, there's a process to go through.
08:50It needs to be improved.
08:51I agree with that.
08:52But illegal immigration is not the answer.
08:54Again, it's not a victimless crime.
08:57If you've seen what I've seen in my career, you might not like me, but you understand me.
09:04I've talked to girls as young as 9 years old that were raped multiple times.
09:08And when you get on your knees, you talk to a 9-year-old little girl
09:10who had everything innocent and pure stolen from her, ripped from her,
09:14who has lost faith in all humanity.
09:16That happens on the border all the time.
09:19I've sent them back to a tractor trailer, 19 dead people at my feet,
09:22including a 5-year-old little boy.
09:24They all baked to death.
09:27You wear my shoes and see the tragedies I've seen at the border.
09:30Secure borders, I'll say it again, secure borders saves lives.
09:33Illegal immigration is not the answer.
09:36Congress needs to do some fixes, but I agree with Governor Santus.
09:39The rule of law is what this country is about.
09:42And if we keep pushing the rule of law, this country is even going to be greater than it is now.
09:47We've got to stand by the rule of law.
09:49We've got great founders of this country.
09:51We need to stand by the principle of what this country is all about.
09:53People can come to this country.
09:55We're the most welcoming country in the entire world.
09:58We bring more refugees and visitors to this country through the legal process
10:01than any other country in the world.
10:03Matter of fact, almost more than all countries combined.
10:06We're the most giving country in the world.
10:09And we won't change that.
10:11But we've got to have a rule of law because people are dying.
10:14Bottom line.
10:16That's why I fight as hard as I fight.