The candidates for the 17th Congressional District have contrasting views on a lot of issues, but perhaps on no positions are they more different than immigration and reproductive rights.
Former President Donald Trump has called for mass deportations of 15 million to 20 million people. Former circuit judge Joe McGraw, the GOP nominee in the 17th District, is cautious about supporting his party’s campaign promise.
“All I know about it is what I heard on the media that everybody is getting deported or something like that. I find that based on my career as a judge, you deal with facts and you deal with the facts as they exist at the moment,” said McGraw.
It’s not even clear there are that many undocumented immigrants to deport. The Pew Research Center estimated the number of undocumented migrants in the U.S. was around 10.5 million in 2021, and there’s not enough data to say how much that number has moved in the last several years.
Trump wants quick action on deportation after the election, and NBC has reported he would potentially hold up federal law enforcement grants for local police agencies that refuse to participate in migrant roundups.
McGraw said any deportation program should be done incrementally, to accumulate experience to enlarge it in a better way. He would start with criminals.
“Violent crimes, sex crimes, drug activity, guns, these are the things that make our communities less safe, and they’ve all been exacerbated by the influx of illegals with their drugs and their guns, and their gangs,” said McGraw.
Most studies show that immigrants — both documented and undocumented — commit crimes at a much lower rate than U.S. citizens.
Here’s an immigration policy McGraw says he would start with: “I think what you have to look at is HR-2. It was passed by the House in May of 2023. My opponent voted against it,” said McGraw.
Rep. Sorensen on immigration
It wasn’t just incumbent U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen who voted against it.
All House Democrats did. Among their human rights objections, HR-2 [the Secure the Border Act] cuts off avenues for asylum seekers, requires employers to electronically verify immigration status and employment eligibility, and rescinds protections for unaccompanied children created under a 1993 ruling called the Flores decree. It also allows for the indefinite detention of immigrant families. HR 2 expands border wall construction. The proposal does not include any path for citizenship or ways of supporting parts of the agricultural economy that rely on undocumented workers.
Sorensen said immigration should not just stop.
“We also need to make sure that there is an ability for people to immigrate to our country for those who want to follow our law,” h said, instead favoring legislation called the “Dignity Act.”
“This is an immigration reform bill that has Republicans and Democrats together that would say that we need to secure the border which would strengthen our economy because of the imports that cross the southern border. It creates that orderly and humane road map to citizenship,” said Sorensen.
The Dignity Act has some money for physical barriers, like a wall, but emphasizes technology and personnel. It also supports ports of entry infrastructure for those who seek asylum.
Both Sorensen and McGraw emphasized the need to stop smuggling of the synthetic opioid fentanyl that has led to many overdose deaths in the U.S. Sorensen is co-sponsoring legislation to increase security technology at border crossings and expand the border security workforce, called the Stop Fentanyl at the Borders Act.
McGraw dismissed that and the Dignity Act, saying much of those duplicate HR 2.
Reproductive rights
Sorensen and McGraw also are on the opposite side of the abortion and reproductive rights issue.
McGraw said he is pro-life, but follows the law, the Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs case overturning Roe v Wade. McGraw said he does not want a federal ban on abortion.
“Each state has to do what they feel best. The electorate in the states tell those that are closest to them, the state legislators, what they want and what they don’t want. And that’s going to be variable across the country,” said McGraw.
“It’s a joke. It really is. We’re going to lose reproductive care,” said Sorensen, adding that leaving the issue to the states sets up massive inequality and hardship for women.
“How on earth have we gotten to a place where my opponent thinks that is the right thing? It is absolutely wrong. It is ludicrous when we talk about the fact that civil rights, your health care rights, are determined by certain states?” said Sorensen.
Sorensen said 70% of patients at Planned Parenthood in Carbondale come from Nashville, Tennessee. And other Illinois health care outlets have similar circumstances.
“I have talked with multiple women who have to drive from the middle of Iowa where they have no rights. They have no health care. And they have to get in a car. And they have to drive the three hours. And they have to cross the Mississippi River. And when they see ‘Welcome to Illinois’ they get their health care back. They get their rights back,” said Sorensen.
Sorensen said he would codify the health care rights of women at the federal level.
