A Democratic congressman and major Democratic campaign committee together paid a firm $700,000 dollars to do campaign work. Unfortunately, that is against the law, because the firm is run by a foreign national, not that the Democrats care about their own criminal activity, because they don’t. Both Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee used the services of La Machine, an Arizona-based firm run by Antonio Valdovinos, a foreign national. Foreigners are not allowed to take part in any election.
Valdovinos a foreign national living in the United States thanks to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Foreigners are not allowed to work on campaigns or to contribute money to campaigns, but Valdovinos has done both. A government watchdog, FACT (Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust) is the group that is bringing the complaint.
Kendra Arnold, the watchdog group’s executive director said:
“Foreign nationals are barred from contributing in any substantive way, both financially or strategically, and given the facts here this is precisely what appears to have happened — repeatedly. The monetary political donations made by Mr. Valdovinos would be egregious violations in and of themselves, and the fact he literally created a political consulting firm with a significant client list and billings is truly beyond the pale.”
The firm, La Machine, was paid handsomely by the DSCC, earning $710,000, allegedly to “canvass voters” in 2022. The campaign committee for Ruben Gallego, Gallego For Arizona, also u8tilized their services paying them $211,587.66 for services including petition gathering. (Ballot harvesting?) You need voter registrations in order to manufacture votes for the Democrats. Valdovinos also handed out 17 campaign contributions. Will this be enough to deport Valdovinos, who is only here because of the DACA program which has been declared illegal?
Gallego said this about Valdovinos:
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL“Like so many Dreamers, Antonio is a patriotic young man who is working hard and contributing to our community. And like hundreds of thousands of Dreamers across this country, his life was placed in limbo when Donald Trump made the cruel and callous decision to end the DACA program.”
Federal courts have consistently ruled that the DACA program is illegal, including as recently as this month. There is also precedent from the Federal Election Commission on cases similar to Valdovinos’ where they ruled that the so-called Dreamers are indeed barred from political activity.
In 2019 after a complaint was filed regarding foreign nationals working for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, the defendants attempted to argue that “DACA recipients are in a special category of foreign nationals for which the foreign national prohibition is of far less concern, and that enforcing it against them would violate their First Amendment rights.”
The FEC, however, ruled otherwise and stated that DACA recipients are in fact foreign nationals. “DACA status does not confer citizenship, lawful permanent residence, or any other immigration status,” the FEC wrote in its ruling. “Thus, at the time of their employment by the [Bernie Sanders campaign], the [three DACA recipients] were foreign nationals under the Act.”
FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub stated in 2019 that the caselaw was clear on the topic of foreign nationals involving themselves in U.S. politics.
“Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election,” Weintraub said. “This is not a novel concept.”
