Fla. Democrat on Immigration Reform: 'Where Are You Going to Get People to Work to Clean Our Hotels or Do Our Landscaping?’

A Democratic candidate for the Florida House of Representatives said Tuesday that immigration reform is “important” because it will remove business owners from the awkward position of having to rely on illegal immigrants for their landscaping and housekeeping needs.

“Immigration reform is important in our country,” Alex Sink said during a debate located five minutes from several Florida hotels. “We have a lot of employers over on the beaches that rely upon workers and especially in this high-growth environment, where are you going to get people to work to clean our hotel rooms or do our landscaping? We don’t need to put those employers in a position of hiring undocumented and illegal workers.”

"We need to bring these people out of the shadows so that they're paying into social security, paying into Medicare, they're paying federal income taxes," she said. "So they're not security issues, but they have to earn their way, but we need immigration reform."

“Evidently, without this reform, these blue-collar jobs will fall into the hands of illegal aliens,” the Washington Free Beacon noted.

Sink is currently in the running for Florida’s 13th congressional seat, which opened up last year after the death of Republican congressman Bill Young.

You may remember Sink from 2010 when she was running for governor against Republican Rick Scott:

Alex Sink is not some random Democrat. https://t.co/LhtSA3DeCg pic.twitter.com/V3NuAG12nq

— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) February 25, 2014

Featured image via AP

--

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter