CAPS Releases Arizona Ad Asking if Sen. Flake is President Trump’s Friend or Foe

This week, CAPS released a television ad that will be broadcast throughout Arizona and will be, for the next several weeks, aired during prime time on Fox News in Phoenix.

Flake has a long, troubling immigration advocacy record.

The ad asks if Republican Senator Jeff Flake is truly committed, as he claims, to working with President Donald Trump on immigration. The evidence says otherwise. In the 2013 Gang of Eight amnesty bill, Flake was solidly aligned with the Senate’s most extreme pro-immigration factions that included four anti-American worker Democrats – Chuck Schumer (NY), Robert Menendez (NJ), Michael Bennet (CO) and Richard Durbin (IL). Flake’s Senate GOP cosigners also had long histories of supporting dramatic immigration increases: John McCain (AZ), Marco Rubio (FL) and Lindsey Graham (SC).

During his Senate career, Flake has had a mixed immigration voting record. But on one of Trump’s priorities, developing better, safer refugee policies, Flake is abysmal. In 2013, Flake voted in favor of legislation that would reduce refugee and asylee oversight. The following year, Flake cosponsored legislation to increase the refugee category for unaccompanied alien children. Finally, in December 2016, Flake introduced the SAFE Act which proposed that those under deferred action for childhood arrivals be allowed to remain (and work) in the United States for three years. Flake also cosponsored similar legislation with his former Gang of Eight colleagues Graham and Durbin, the BRIDGE Act. Even though illegal immigrants have murdered Arizona residents, Flake has shown little interest in ending sanctuary cities.

Taken on the whole, Flake’s record doesn’t line up with Trump’s immigration priorities. CAPS and Arizona voters want to know whether Flake is serious about restricting immigration, thereby helping give American workers a much-needed wage boost, or whether he’ll stick to his Gang of Eight amnesty agenda.

Read the CAPS press release here, and watch the ad here.