No, Congressman Tom Graves Doesn’t Support Amnesty

Misinformation has been spread via social media about Congressman Tom Graves’ (R-GA-14) supposed “betrayal of American workers” with alleged tacit support of an amendment proposed by Democratic Congressman Pete Aguilar of California that would allow those under the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy established under the Obama administration to seek for Federal employment.  Word on social media began to spread that Congressman Graves supports amnesty. (!!)

NumbersUSA was one of those groups spouting inflammatory language stating their unbelief that the congressman would be supporters of such an amendment (spoiler alert: he doesn’t):

Unbelievable that @TomGravesGA14 & @USRepRodney would allow illegal aliens w/DACA to hold jobs w/federal government! https://t.co/6hcW0MTcUB

— NumbersUSA (@NumbersUSA) July 14, 2017

NumbersUSA later retracted that charge after Congressman Graves issued a statement later on Friday clarifying and reassuring his opposition the DACA amendment (the Congressman’s statement is in italics):

It was assumed that adding the amnesty to the bill was supported by Rep. Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Graves (R-Ga.) since it was his bill and he made no public statement of opposition when the committee put out a press release bragging about including the amnesty amendment. But Rep. Graves put out a statement late Friday about the amnesty amendment:

“I spoke against this amendment, voted against it and urged all other committee members to vote against it. And I’m already working get it stripped from the bill when it comes to the House Floor.” — Rep. Tom Graves

Bud Whitmire, Deputy Chief of Staff for Congressman Graves, sent out an email setting the record straight (emphasis is his):

The amendment is meaningless, out of order and will be removed procedurally from the text of the bill upon its arrival on the House Floor. As noted by Breitbart, “GOP legislators, led by Georgia Rep. Tom Graves, are working to kill off a Democratic measure which has been added to the House’s 2018 spending plan and will allow younger illegal immigrants to find jobs in government.”

In fact, Rep. Graves already coordinated a letter with the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Trey Gowdy, to ensure the procedural steps were taken to have the measure removed on the House Floor.

Rest assured, Rep. Graves will keep fighting to get this Democrat amendment ripped out of the bill in order to protect American jobs. As always please let me know if our office can be helpful to you.

NumbersUSA corrected their assumption with fact, and that’s a good thing.  Unfortunately, the misinformation will perpetuate across the far-right community via social media because it fits the “#RINO Congressman Supports/Voted For $rage_du_jour” narrative.

Fake news perpetuates because it hits you emotionally with titles like “you won’t believe what this $bad_hombre did/supported/voted for…call your Congressman now!”.  I’ve seen the same 5 or 6 year old fake news story about Hobby Lobby closing because they’re taking a stand on contraceptives (mind you, the Supreme Court ruled in Hobby Lobby’s favor) 3 times just this week because a “conservative news” site posted it recently as a late-breaking story.  In short, the news consumer really should follow this advise: caveat emptor, or “let the buyer beware”.