Busse attack ad alleges Gianforte hypocrisy on illegal immigration

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On Monday, Democratic contender for governor Ryan Busse fired off his campaign’s latest attack against Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte — one undermined by a glaring factual omission.

In a video posted to social media, Busse accused Gianforte of being a “hypocrite” for hiring “migrant workers” to repair the roof on his recently purchased Helena mansion around the same time that he sent Montana National Guard troops to the country’s southern border with Mexico as part of Texas’ border security operations.

The video included clips of the roofers, shot from the neighborhood sidewalk, overlayed with fragments of audio from an unidentified male voice saying “from Columbia” and “from Mexico.” Nowhere in the accompanying press release or video does Busse offer any evidence that the roofers are either immigrants or undocumented, as is strongly implied.

Asked about the ad’s implication, Busse campaign manager Aaron Murphy later told MTFP the “onus is on Gianforte” to prove that the roofers — who were hired by a local contracting company, not by the governor, according to Gianforte’s campaign — were authorized to work in the U.S.

“If the governor himself cannot prove that, which should be easy to do in consultation with the company he hired, then we all should presume they were undocumented,” Murphy said. He later said he did not regard his comment as encouraging racial profiling. 

Asked if Gianforte knew whether the contractor asked the workers for proof of their status to work in the U.S., Gianforte campaign spokesperson Anna Marian Block said Wednesday that the governor “trusts the contractor did his due diligence to comply with the law” and struck back at Busse for the allegation.

“Gov. Gianforte did not hire illegal immigrants. Ryan Busse is an unhinged hypocrite who will say and do anything to get elected,” Block said.

Immigration law puts the responsibility for verifying worker authorization on their employer, not the homeowner or business where work is being conducted, said Montana-based immigration attorney Shahid Haque. 

In this instance, Haque said, there was “literally nothing suspect” about the work crew depicted in the campaign video. Busse’s attack, he continued, “may even be defamatory” by presenting the roofers as undocumented when they may not be. 

“In this attack, Busse is taking a page from the Republicans’ anti-immigrant playbook and stoking overblown fears,” Haque said. “Democrats used to be the party of immigration reform and welcoming new immigrants. They are now engaged in the same cynical tactic of getting votes by making people afraid of their Spanish-speaking neighbors.”