WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Norm Coleman’s American Action Network has released a handful of ads supporting the Senate’s efforts to reform federal immigration policy, and its fourth comes out this week, a $100,000 Fox News buy asking viewers to pressure the House to take up the bill.
From ABC News:
The center-right super PAC American Action Network will run an ad this week on Fox News that calls on the House of Representatives to back the so-called “border surge” contained in the Senate bill. The plan would dramatically increase resources devoted to securing the southern border. The group said in a statement it is spending “$100,000 plus” to air the ad.
The 30-second spot stresses the provisions of the “surge,” calling it “the toughest border security plan ever passed by Congress.”
“Seven hundred miles of new fencing. Twenty thousand new border patrol agents. Radar. Night vision. Even drones,” the narrator says during the ad. “And supported by conservative leaders like Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Paul Ryan.”
The ad comes as the Republican-controlled House is contemplating how to move forward on immigration reform. So far, outside interest groups haven’t thrown their full weight into the immigration debate. But those groups may become more aggressive if House Republicans continue to spurn the legislation.
House GOP leadership has scheduled a closed-door conference meeting Wednesday to discuss immigration reform, which could help clear up how the chamber will move forward on the matter. Leadership has already said they aren’t taking up the Senate bill, and the House could go in a handful of different directions, though no one is quite sure which will win out at this point (Politico, in fact, previewed just that today).
Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com.
