The conservative National Review is opposing President Trump’s pick to lead the Labor Department, writing in an editorial Wednesday that Andrew Puzder’s position on immigration is harmful to American workers.
“Puzder himself has been a reliable font of clichés in favor of higher levels of legal immigration,” the magazine wrote.
“He has suggested that ‘the fact is that there are jobs in this country that U.S. citizens, for whatever reason, are reluctant or unwilling to perform’ — a cliché that ignores the possibility of raising wages to attract citizens — and as recently as 2015 encouraged reviving the Gang of Eight approach to immigration,” it continues, referencing a failed bipartisan immigration reform proposal.
{mosads}Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which operates Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., has emerged as one of Trump’s most embattled Cabinet picks. His Senate hearings have been delayed multiple times as he works to separate himself from his business interests.
National Review’s editorial takes particular aim at Puzder for his views on immigration, arguing that the fast food CEO directly opposes Trump’s hard-line immigration stance, calling him “a representative of the worst reflex of corporate America on one of Trump’s signature issues.”
“We have our disagreements with President Trump’s economics, but the emphasis on the interests of lower-income workers who are in competition with immigrant labor is important,” the editorial says.
“Trump should find a labor secretary who agrees with it and can be trusted to try to vigorously effect policies reflecting it.”
Puzder came under fire last week for admitting to once employing an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper. He said he fired the employee when he learned she was not legally permitted to work in the U.S. and has since paid back taxes.
The editorial urges the Trump administration and Senate to withdraw Puzder’s nomination, pointing out that, so far, all of the president’s major Cabinet appointees have been confirmed. Trump, they write, “can weather a re-do on this one.”
National Review opposed Trump throughout his 2016 presidential bid, even dedicating an entire issue to essays criticizing him, but has more recently defended him at times.