Rep. Gary Miller (R) of California has, over the course of 14-year career in Congress, established himself as something of a hardliner when it comes to immigration policy. He’s on record supporting mass deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants already in the United States, he’s routinely used words like “illegals” as a noun; and he’s even opposed the very idea of birthright citizenship, as enshrined in the Constitution.
That, however, was before. Now that California has redrawn its congressional district boundaries, Miller has discovered that his Orange County district is suddenly far more diverse than it used to be.
And as Andrew Kaczynski discovered, the Republican congressman has apparently decided it’s time to dramatically alter his online presence — including inexplicably pulling multiple videos from his official YouTube page in which he explained his views (his previous views) on immigration in some detail.
“How do you justify having 15 million people unemployed in this country and having 8 million illegals in this country taking those jobs,” Miller says in one video.
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“It’s just wrong,” Miller said in another video discussing birthright citizenship and his bill which aimed to revoke birthright citizenship to children born in the United States to illegal immigrants.
Miller’s office did not explain why all of the videos had to be removed from public view, but told Kaczynski that the congressman’s views on immigration “will continue to evolve as we continue to listen and gather input from residents, business leaders, and law enforcement officials to ensure that the needs of the Inland Empire are met.”
Imagine that.
Immigration reform proponents putting together target lists should probably go ahead and consider Miller a “maybe,” whereas in the not-too-distant past, he would have been considered a “you’ve got to be kidding me.”
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