Defeated-Sen. Lugar is worst immigration Republican in Senate — both GOP & Dem Indiana primary victors MUCH better

No matter which Party wins in November, the Indiana Senate seat now held by Richard Lugar should produce far better immigration actions in the future. 

Democrat primary winner Joe Donnelly has a B+ Career immigration grade in the U.S. House.

And the GOP primary victor, Richard Mourdock, filled out the NumbersUSA survey to earn the title of TRUE REFORMER, supporting all 12 of our immigration stances.

In addition, the Libertarian primary victor, Andrew Horning, filled out our survey and looks almost as good as Donnelly on immigration.

(Click here to view all the comparisons in this Senate race: https://www.numbersusa.com/content/elections/races/mid-west/indiana/2012-indiana-us-senate.html)

Finally, the workers of Indiana — and the country — will have a U.S. Senator from Indiana who cares about their interests when it comes to immigration.

NumbersUSA has been sending out tens of thousands of emails to Indiana voters offering comparisons of all the Senate candidates on immigration.

LUGAR IMMIGRATION RECORD PRIME EXAMPLE OF OUT-OF-TOUCH LABEL THAT SANK HIM

Like many Senators who serve for many terms, Sen. Lugar was vulnerable to charges that he no longer had a good feel for the needs of his state’s voters.  The fact that his greatest reputation is in foreign policy didn’t help.

His immigration actions accentuated both those identities because he used immigration as a kind of bargaining chit in his foreign policy gamemanship.  The effect on U.S. workers didn’t seem to ever come into play.

Indiana Secretary of State Mourdock challenged Lugar in part because of his constant leadership in pushing for amnesties for illegal aliens who have illegally stolen U.S. jobs.

At the time, I issued this statement:

“Sen. Lugar has always seemed to me to be a serious statesman, but that quality has always been missing in his blind eye to the suffering that his immigration policies cause the most vulnerable Americans, as well as the deterioration to the quality of life of ordinary citizens.”

Sen. Lugar never met an amnesty he didn’t like, voting for amnesties 15 times. 

HOW MUCH DID LUGAR HURT UNEMPLOYED AMERICANS?  LET ME COUNT THE WAYS

We rated Sen. Lugar on 85 immigration actions since 1989. 

When each action was weighted according to the numerical impact, we found that he acted 81% of the time in favor of foreign workers and dependents over the interests of U.S. workers and dependents.  

That earned him a D-minus over his career, making him the worst Republican in the Senate (Sen. John McCain of Arizona is runner-up).

He acted 84% of the time in favor of the Chain Migration of extended family of immigrants over the interests of U.S. workers.
He acted 100% of the time in favor of foreign workers brought in through a random lottery.
He acted 98% of the time for amnesty enticements and 76% of the time for other rewards for illegal aliens.
And in 30 votes and co-sponsorships that were about direct importation of workers, he acted more than 99% of the time for more immigrant competition for U.S. workers.

He did give tepid support to secure borders (C+) and interior enforcement (C) but tried to kill a pilot E-Verify program to keep illegal aliens from getting jobs back in 1996.

ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA