Anti-immigration group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has targeted budget chief Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, in an ad campaign launched in his home state in response to his support of immigration reform.
According to a report from The Daily Caller, the high-priced radio and TV ad campaign started Monday, Aug. 5 at a time that coincided with the August congressional recess. Throughout August, Ryan will be home likely defending himself for actively supporting a major rewrite of immigration law.
FAIR says that their ads challenge Ryan to justify his support for massive immigration increases in light of staggeringly high unemployment across Wisconsin and even in his own congressional district.
"Congressman Paul Ryan says we have a labor shortage in Wisconsin, that's right, a labor shortage. Tell that to the 12 percent unemployed in Racine, the 10 percent in Milwaukee, the 9 percent in Janesville," the ad says. "Thousands are looking for work...yet Ryan wants to...bring in millions more foreign workers to take our jobs."
According to FAIR, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee has become a prominent voice in support of granting amnesty to illegal immigrants and dramatically increasing future immigration to avert a looming labor shortage in the United States.
The organization says Ryan's advocacy for amnesty and immigration increases has intensified as unemployment has continued to rise throughout his home state. According to FAIR, in June, unemployment increased in 30 of Wisconsin's 32 largest cities and in 56 of the state's 72 counties.
"Congressman Ryan needs to explain to thousands of Wisconsin workers, who are struggling to find jobs to support their families, why he wants to increase immigration in order to avoid a labor shortage that clearly doesn't exist," said Dan Stein, President of FAIR, in a statement. "Wisconsin has 200,000 unemployed workers. Does Congressman Ryan think they're not good enough to get the job done?
FAIR fancies itself a national nonpartisan organization that supports enforcement of U.S. immigration laws and overall reductions in immigration to restore a fair labor market for all.
The Wisconsin ad campaign cost the organization $200,000 and is the next phase of a growing seven figure ad campaign slated to appear across the country.
FAIR says it has already invested $1 million in radio and TV spots in the first half of 2013 alone. It also promises similar ads will soon appear elsewhere.
The Wisconsin ad arrives on the heels of Ryan's vocal insistence for an arguably controversial rewrite of immigration legislation.
"We have listened to the American people," Ryan told reporters. "We need to fix our legal immigration system because people come to this country based on family relations, not based on skills."
"So what we're going to do is take a step-by-step approach to get immigration right, not a big, massive bill but separate bills so people know what's in these bills."
Criticisms of Ryan have increased as he's pushed fellow Republican lawmakers to vote for an immigration overhaul that is not popular with a large percentage of GOP party members. Aides say that the overall push for immigration reform is encouraged more by progressives, the media and President Obama than anyone else, all of whom are said to believe passing major immigration legislation would be a "historic achievement."