In my piece yesterday, I overlooked congressman-elect David Rivera, who won Mario Diaz-Balart’s seat in south Florida (Mario moved over to take the seat held by his brother Lincoln, who retired). Diaz-Balart has earned an F on immigration, but so did his brother; Rivera, on the other hand, says this at his campaign website:
Immigration– David believes that stopping illegal immigration starts by controlling our borders and strengthening existing penalties for people entering the country illegally. There are also many businesses that subsist on the work of illegal immigrants and David believes that the federal government must enact harsh penalties against employers that hire illegal immigrants.
Is he a full-spectrum restrictionist? Probably not. And he’s a politician, so I suppose he could weasel out of anything, but this at least doesn’t sound like someone likely to earn an F. And when you add him to representatives-elect Canseco, Flores, Herrera, and Labrador, not to mention senator-elect Rubio and governors-elect Martinez and Sandoval, you’re getting a significant number of congressmen (Americans who happen, by the way, to come from Hispanic backgrounds) championing strong borders.