Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday that anti-immigrant sentiment in rural America declines when residents know and appreciate the role of those moving into their communities.
It's the thinking behind a provision in a rural economic plan introduced by the South Bend, Indiana, mayor that would enable local towns and counties to seek work visas for immigrants to fill the many empty positions in labor-hungry rural America. Local officials identify their own workforce needs and pair visa requests to those needs. Ideally, the visa program creates the possibility of greater acceptance of immigrants into a community.
Buttigieg was on the outset of a three-day trip through eastern Iowa and planned to stop in counties that Democrat Barack Obama won in carrying Iowa in 2012, but that flipped to Republican Donald Trump in 2016.