Immigration Reformers on Trump’s DHS Pick: ‘We Did Not Elect a Bush, We Specifically Rejected the Bush Dynasty’

A pro-American immigration reform group is coming down hard on President Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Kirstjen Nielsen, former Jeb Bush donor and DHS staffer under President George W. Bush, is being slammed by Trump’s immigration allies at NumbersUSA, an organization dedicated to reducing immigration to give relief to American workers who have suffered from stagnant wages and job displacement.

In an interview with Breitbart News, NumbersUSA spokeswoman Rosemary Jenks said “there is no indication anywhere that she knows anything about immigration policy,” despite Nielsen receiving praise in the mainstream media by her former pro-cheap labor, pro-open borders colleagues in the Bush administration, as Breitbart News reported.

“Doesn’t that really say it all,” Jenks said of the Bush political establishment’s endorsement of Nielsen.

“There was virtually no one in the Bush admin that was good on immigration,” Jenks said. “If the Trump administration is serious about driving an immigration agenda, I don’t see how it happens with someone at the head of DHS who doesn’t know anything about immigration policy.”

“The last thing we need at DHS is a Bush Republican,” Jenks said. “We elected Trump. We did not elect a Bush. We specifically rejected the Bush dynasty. We don’t need a Bush Republican at DHS.”

Center for Immigration Studies Executive Director Mark Krikorian told Breitbart News he is willing to give Nielsen the benefit of the doubt because of her past experience with Trump’s former DHS Secretary John Kelly, who now serves as Trump’s Chief of Staff.

“The fact that she has all of these Bush ties is a reason for concern,” Krikorian said. “On the other hand, she was Kelly’s chief of staff and he did a pretty credible job.”

Nielsen’s appointment to DHS was praised by the likes of Stewart Verdery, Tom Ridge and Frances Townsend, all of whom worked in the Bush administration and pushed amnesty for illegal aliens or the importation of more cheap, foreign workers.

Verdery, for instance, pleaded with the Republican Party in 2014 to expand foreign work visa programs, where cheaper foreigners are brought to the U.S. to take American jobs.

In 2003, while serving as Bush’s DHS Secretary, Ridge told Congress in a congressional hearing that the 12 to 30 million illegal aliens in the U.S. should receive permanent to remain in the country, sparking outrage from then pro-American immigration reformer Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO).

Ridge railed against Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s pro-American immigration enforcement in 2010 — which Trump ally and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach helped craft — saying that instead of deporting illegal aliens, the federal government should have stepped in and legalized the millions of illegal aliens in the U.S.

“It’s ridiculous to think … we’re going to identify 12 million to 14 million people and send them back,” Ridge previously said.