Hallie Shoffner, the Democratic candidate challenging Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., for U.S. Senate, is facing backlash over comments she made on a podcast about immigrant labor and American workers.
Speaking on the “Free Arkansas Podcast” during an hour-long conversation covering a range of political topics, Shoffner, who works as a farmer, criticized the country’s immigration system.
“I want to talk about the fact that our immigration system is backlogged, bureaucratic and doesn’t actually help anybody, including American employers who want folks who want to follow the law,” Shoffner said.
She recounted a conversation with a fellow farmer, whom she described as a Republican, about the difficulty of finding labor.
“Labor is a huge issue, especially when you don’t have a large workforce. And every farmer will tell you, ‘yeah, at one point we did, or still do, employ undocumented immigrants.’ And it’s absolutely ridiculous that these folks are being rounded up because they’re hardworking people. They’re some of the best people we know.”
Shoffner then added: “And honestly, we’d trade five Americans just for one of them because of how hard they work.”
She went on to call for a legal pathway for illegal aliens to work in the United States, saying, “when they’re good workers, we pay them well, they’re good workers, they spend money here [and] they have family here.”
Cotton’s Campaign Responds
Cotton’s campaign seized on the remarks, accusing Shoffner of implying she has employed illegal aliens herself.
“Hallie Shoffner’s campaign isn’t denying that she employed illegal aliens,” campaign spokesman James Arnold told Fox News Digital. “They’re also standing by Hallie Shoffner’s claim that just one illegal immigrant is more valuable than five American citizens.”
Arnold added, “Every Democrat running for Congress needs to answer if they agree with Hallie Shoffner’s belief that illegal aliens are worth more than Americans.”
Shoffner Campaign Pushes Back
Shoffner’s campaign manager, Anna-Lee Pittman, told Fox News Digital that the comments were taken out of context and accused Cotton of refusing to engage on immigration reform.
Pittman said Cotton “spends his days combing through video clips of Hallie Shoffner to find any possible inelegant phrase or line that he can chop up to misrepresent an hour-long conversation and present it with no context,” adding that “in this response, Shoffner relayed a conversation she had with another farmer about challenges with labor.”
A Shift on ICE
This is not the first time Shoffner’s immigration positions have drawn attention. In June, she said she would support defunding ICE.
“I would vote to defund ICE as it exists right now. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was created not that long ago, and it no longer serves the purpose it was originally created for.”
She continued: “I would not spend one more dime on ICE, because — not just because of the human dignity issue — but also the fact that it is now the largest law enforcement agency in the country. It has 10 times the budget of the organization that fights child sex trafficking.”
But earlier this month, Shoffner reversed course in a Facebook post, writing, “I don’t want to defund ICE, I want to reform it.”
Immigration remains a central issue heading into the midterm elections, as the Trump administration continues nationwide operations to arrest and deport illegal aliens, drawing criticism from Democratic politicians and activists across the country.
