Byron Donalds Cements Illegal Immigration Agenda Stance Following Edited Pathway Remarks

Congressman and Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds (R-FL) decisively affirmed his commitment to stopping illegal immigration in the United States while addressing a question The Floridian  posed  to him during a campaign stop in Coconut Creek.

The response came after an edited video appeared to show Rep. Donalds endorsing a pathway to citizenship for illegals at a CPAC [Conservative Political Action Conference] event in 2021.

Rep. Donalds dismissed the claim and recounted what he said on immigration from the event, which he laid out in detail to a crowd at the Associated Builders and Contractors Florida East Coast Chapter in Coconut Creek.

"I said, you have to start with border security. You have to start with security first, get that done," Donalds said.

Rep. Donalds then pointed to ending H-1B visas. The H-1B visa program is a government program that allows employers to hire foreign nationals temporarily with a bachelor's degree or equivalent to work in specialty occupations such as IT, engineering, and healthcare.

"They've got to go. They've been abused, abusing American workers," Donalds said. There's so many reforms in the visa process that are needed because this stuff was written in the 80s, not today. It all has to be reformed."

Furthermore, Donalds specified having a comprehensive biometric exit system. A biometric entry/exit system, developed after 9/11, uses unique biological identifiers such as facial images and fingerprints to track the entry and exit of travelers in the United States.

He also cemented ending chain migration. The policy became popular beginning in the 1960s and allows legal immigrants and citizens to sponsor family members from their home countries to immigrate to the United States.

"We should go back to a quota system on immigration, because the United States has to be able to assimilate people coming into the country," Donalds said. If you have workers who are using visas to come in, we've got to be able to take stock of that, assimilate them into our way of life."

Moreover, Donalds pushed for ending birthright citizenship. The policy, which grants automatic citizenship to children born on U.S. soil regardless of their parents' citizenship or immigration status, has come under the microscope following oral arguments at the Supreme Court on its constitutionality after President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to end birthright citizenship in January 2025.

Donalds, endorsed by President Trump for governor, argued the policy was a "bastardization" of the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, which granted citizenship to persons born or naturalized in the U.S., including former slaves, and has since changed in "practice" from its intended purpose at the time.

Specifically, Donalds pointed to the rise of "birth tourism" by the Chinese Communist Party.

"The Chinese government has over 500 birth tourism companies where they have Chinese foreign nationals who basically come over on a tourist visa, give birth in the United States, [and] the baby is now a US citizen under the way it's looked at," Donalds said.

"And then they go back to China, and then that child who has citizenship has the ability to come into the United States at any given point in time. The parents don't have allegiance to the United States. The parents are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, but the children are now somehow citizens," Donalds continued, calling the process "crazy."

While correcting the record, Donalds criticized Democrats for wanting a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Notably, the policy has come into light by way of the American Dream and Promise Act of 2025, introduced in February, which would provide a pathway to citizenship to illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children, Temporary Protected Status migrants, and others.

And unlike the Democrats, Donalds affirmed discussions on a pathway to citizenship would only come at the end of his agenda, not at the beginning, while pushing back on the edited tape of his past words, and making one thing abundantly clear.

"I will never support that, ever," Donalds said. That's amnesty, and it's wrong."

Donalds also pledged to deport all illegal aliens in line with President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis under Florida's 287(g) program. 287(g) permits U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to work with state and local partners to arrest and remove illegal aliens from the United States.

"One hundred percent, I support deporting illegals. I supported Donald Trump," Donalds affirmed. "What Governor DeSantis is doing today with members of law enforcement all being under the 287(g)program - I support that as well, and we're going to continue that."

Donalds is in a Republican primary with Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, former Florida House speaker Paul Renner, and businessman James Fishback.

Florida's primary election will be held on August 18.