Published in the Rappahannock News March 12, 2020
Contributed by Demaris Miller
Whom does your Congressman serve? Is it you and your neighbors back home, or the power elites and special interests who swarm the corridors of Capitol Hill?
In just his first year in office freshman Congressman Denver Riggleman has left a trail of votes which unambiguously answer this question.
On January 22, 2019, Riggleman voted for H.J. Resolution 31. This allows DHS to vastly increase H2B visas for foreign nationals. This increase is not for seasonal agricultural labor — not seasonal workers for picking crops. This is for foreign workers to take the high-tech jobs your children and grandchildren are looking for.
The same bill also reduces detention bed funding for ICE and prevents the hiring of new ICE agents. Hundreds of thousands of foreign workers will be imported as a result of this bill.
On March 13, 2019, Riggleman voted for H.R. 1740 which establishes a new foreign worker visa category for construction workers. These visas are for a three-year initial period with up to two consecutive periods of authorized presence. It allows for up to 85,000 per year. Do our local construction workers want more foreigners competing for their jobs?
On July 10, 2019, Riggleman voted for H.R. 1044, the so-called Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act. Virginians wonder why Riggleman never offered an alternate bill, perhaps titled the Fairness for High Skilled Americans Act.
H.R. 1044 eliminates per country caps on these visas. It’s estimated this bill will immediately add 300,000 workers from South East Asia. Most of these workers compete in STEM and IT fields, reducing job opportunities for American workers in these fields and depressing wages across the board.
Altogether, Riggleman’s votes facilitate the importation of well over a half million foreign workers per year – and millions more over the next decade – to directly compete with our own neighbors and families for good paying jobs across a wide variety of employment sectors.
These huge numbers are in addition to the 1,100,000 already entering through legal immigration every year.
H.R. 1044 was sponsored by Zoe Lofren, ultra-liberal Democrat from California’s Silicon Valley, the home of tech giants Google and Facebook.
Just weeks after he was sworn into office in early January, 2019, on February 7, Riggleman became one of its earliest co-sponsors. Why is the Republican congressman from the 5th district of Virginia doing the bidding of Democrat Zoe Lofgren’s Silicon Valley masters of the universe? Why isn’t he listening to his own constituents?
In effect Riggleman’s votes constitute a huge wealth transfer from US citizens (in the form of job displacement and depressed wages) to Silicon Valley billionaires.
President Trump ran on a platform of American jobs for American workers. In rallies across the country the president continues to repeat this clarion call. It appears Mr Riggeman has not heard the message. But he’s hearing from his constituents now.
Riggleman is facing a serious, grass-roots funded challenge for the 5th district Republican nomination – by Bob Good, a conservative supervisor from Campbell County and until recently a fundraiser at Liberty University. Bob Good listens to the people of the 5th District of Virginia and shares our values.
Delegates to the 5th District convention on April 25, 2020, will have a clear choice. As clear as any in recent times.