Gluesenkamp Perez faces MAGA rematch for U.S. House in rural WA

Border battles 

Since arriving in Congress, Gluesenkamp Perez has sought to distance herself from Democratic leadership, bucking the party line on major issues.  

She voted for Republican efforts to block Biden’s student debt relief plan, telling Cascade PBS it would help Washington less than many other states and that she believed society should place more value on non-academic types of education.  

Gluesenkamp Perez also teamed up with Republicans on a bill that sought to automatically expel asylum seekers at the border “without further hearing or review” as well as reinstate Trump’s 2018 ”Remain in Mexico” policy, which kept asylum seekers out while they awaited U.S. court dates.  

Supporters from across the spectrum have praised her unpredictable votes and willingness to break with her own party as a values-driven independent streak. Critics, especially on the left, see a calculated pivot rightward to absorb Republican criticism by capitulating to their agenda. 

In an interview with Cascade PBS, Gluesenkamp Perez defended her immigration proposals as overdue actions to combat fentanyl overdoses. She tried to distinguish her bills from Trump’s policies by incorrectly claiming that the “Remain in Mexico” policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, predated Trump. (While a 1996 law authorized such removals, Trump’s use of that authority was unique). She added that her policies are not motivated by “racial animus” as Trump’s were and said she would not support more extreme policies like a full border closure or separating families at the border if Trump wins. 

“It’s not about some draconian operation,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “The suffering and pain that fentanyl trafficking has caused can’t wait, and it doesn’t need to wait for the perfect immigration policy.” 

Kent, meanwhile, has gone much further, calling for mass deportations and broad limits on legal immigration.  

“The only immigration I’m a fan of, or have, or don’t have an issue with, is if people want to marry foreigners, because that number is so low and that leads to more family formations,” Kent said at a March 2022 town hall in Onalaska. (Kent’s lawyers later threatened the Centralia Chronicle with a lawsuit for reporting on his comments.) 

At a recent town hall event in Castle Rock, Kent laid out a plan to send the military down to “seal” the border, build a wall, and make it impossible for undocumented immigrants to work or receive government benefits in hopes that they will leave voluntarily. 

“I think we need to really cull the herd, get the economic migrants out of here and then focus our law enforcement resources on the people who are not self-deporting,” Kent said. “We’re actually pretty good at hunting down humans, we got fairly proficient at that in the war on terror.”