Hallie Shoffner, the Democratic nominee challenging Republican Sen. Tom Cotton in Arkansas, is facing criticism over podcast remarks that appeared to suggest undocumented workers are more valuable than American workers.
During an hour-long appearance on the “Free Arkansas Podcast,” Shoffner argued that the nation’s immigration system is slow, overly bureaucratic and failing both immigrants and American businesses seeking workers who can legally enter the country.
Shoffner, a farmer, is running against Cotton in the heavily Republican state.
She said she had recently discussed the agricultural labor shortage with another farmer whom she identified as a Republican.
“Labor is a huge issue, especially when you don’t have a large workforce,” Shoffner said.
She added that many farmers acknowledge having employed undocumented immigrants, describing those workers as hardworking and among “the best people we know.” Shoffner also criticized efforts to detain and deport them.
“And honestly, we’d trade five Americans just for one of them because of how hard they work,” she said.
Shoffner called for a legal pathway allowing undocumented immigrants to work in the United States, arguing that many are productive employees who earn wages, spend money in local communities and have families in the country.
Cotton’s campaign interpreted the comments as suggesting that Shoffner herself had employed undocumented workers.
“Hallie Shoffner’s campaign isn’t denying that she employed illegal aliens,” campaign spokesman James Arnold told Fox News Digital.
“They’re also standing by Hallie Shoffner’s claim that just one illegal immigrant is more valuable than five American citizens.”
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Arnold said Democrats seeking congressional office should state whether they agree with Shoffner’s comparison.
Shoffner’s campaign manager, Anna-Lee Pittman, told Fox News Digital that the candidate’s remarks had been taken out of context. She also accused Cotton of refusing to engage in a serious discussion about changes to the immigration system.
Pittman said Cotton “spends his days combing through video clips of Hallie Shoffner to find any possible inelegant phrase or line that he can chop up to misrepresent an hour-long conversation and present it with no context.” She said Shoffner was recounting a discussion with another farmer about the labor challenges facing agriculture.
Shoffner has also previously supported calls from the political left to defund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
“I would vote to defund ICE as it exists right now,” Shoffner said at an event in June.
She argued that ICE was established relatively recently and no longer fulfills the purpose for which it was created.
“I would not spend one more dime on ICE, because — not just because of the human dignity issue — but also the fact that it is now the largest law enforcement agency in the country,” she said.
Shoffner also claimed that ICE has 10 times the budget of the organization dedicated to combating child sex trafficking.
Earlier this month, however, the Arkansas Democrat appeared to soften or revise her position in a post on Facebook.
“I don’t want to defund ICE, I want to reform it,” she said.
Immigration is a hotbed issue heading into the midterm elections, as it was two years ago during President Trump’s campaign to occupy the White House for a second term.
The Trump administration has carried out immigration operations nationwide to arrest and deport illegal aliens, drawing blowback from Democrat politicians and activists.
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