Pro-DREAMer GOP Rep. Will Hurd gets ad boost from Chamber of Commerce

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday launched its first immigration-focused ad of the 2018 election cycle, praising Republican Rep. Will Hurd of Texas for his support of young immigrants who want to stay and work legally in the U.S.

The chamber is spending "six figures" on pro-Hurd ads to run for two weeks on broadcast and cable television stations and online in the congressman's San Antonio-area district. Hurd faces Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones in the Nov. 6 election.

"Will Hurd is fighting to protect the Dreamers," the ad says. "He's also leading the charge for new border security measures that will keep our communities safer. Will Hurd is working for all of us."

DREAMers are undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country as children. Nearly 700,000 of them have been in legal limbo since last year, when President Trump ended an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Federal courts have ordered the Trump administration to keep the program running for now.

Hurd is among a group of moderate Republicans leading an effort to force GOP House leaders to allow a vote on a series of bills to protect DREAMers from deportation.

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"Ninety-seven percent of DACA recipients are in school or working," Hurd wrote in a recent op-ed in the San Antonio Express-News. "They are your classmates and your co-workers. They are starting new businesses at a rate almost double than the American public. Not only are these folks paying taxes, but they are purchasing first homes, cars and services from American businesses. They are creating jobs and contributing to our economy."

Hurd has also been an outspoken opponent of Trump's border wall, denouncing it as an ineffective waste of taxpayer money. Instead, Hurd, a former CIA agent, has called for high-tech surveillance to assist the U.S. Border Patrol.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is at odds with the Trump administration on immigration, calling for Congress to pass bipartisan legislation that would provide the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants with a way to earn legal status and stay. The president has focused on deporting immigrants who are here illegally, reducing legal immigration, and building a border wall.

On the issue of DREAMers, the Chamber has taken the position that deporting them would hurt both the immigrants and the U.S. economy.

"To withdraw the right of these individuals to study and work and to deport them to countries they do not know is contrary to fundamental American principles and the best interests of America," the Chamber says on its website. "Congress must find a solution or the American economy and our communities will feel the loss."