Leadership Quote by Jim Costa

Costa’s line is engineered to sound like a concession while quietly staking out the destination. “Should we attempt border security first” nods to the enforcement-first instinct that dominates cable-news immigration debates, but the phrasing is telling: attempt, not achieve. It’s a permission slip to move on to legalization even if the border is never “solved” to anyone’s satisfaction, because perfection is an endlessly movable goalpost.

The second move is the pivot from sequence to inevitability: “we still need to face the fact that comprehensive reform is necessary.” That “face the fact” posture casts reform as realism, not ideology. It also positions opponents as willfully ignoring reality rather than arguing policy. In Washington terms, it’s a bid to reclaim the mantle of pragmatism.

Then comes the coalition-building language. “Guest worker program” is the business-friendly olive branch, signaling labor flexibility without saying “cheap labor” out loud. “Dealing with the 11 million people” is the careful euphemism for a path to legal status, framed as administrative problem-solving rather than moral crusade. The most strategic clause is “contributing to our economy.” Costa isn’t primarily making a humanitarian appeal; he’s making a legitimacy claim. If people are already woven into the labor market, the argument goes, the rational state response is regulation and integration, not fantasy-level removal.

Context matters: this is the post-2000s Democratic playbook in border districts and agricultural states like California’s Central Valley. You affirm security to neutralize the “open borders” charge, then argue that the economy itself has already voted for comprehensive reform.