Outside the City, Democrats and Republicans Run on Outcry Over Migrants in NYC
Jon Campbell, Gothamist, October 23, 2024
As she stands at the border of Queens and Nassau County, where she hopes to unseat a first-term Republican, Laura Gillen wants to talk about the U.S.-Mexico border some 2,000 miles away.
“I want you to hear me loud and clear,” the Democrat says in a political ad that’s been in heavy rotation on Long Island. “You send me to Congress, I will work with anyone from any party to secure our southern border, lock up criminals pushing fentanyl and stop the migrant crisis.”
It would have been surprising rhetoric to hear from a Democrat just a few years ago. But the ongoing national debate over immigration policy and New York City’s struggle to provide shelter for tens of thousands of newly arrived migrants have had a dramatic influence on a small handful of key congressional races on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley — including Gillen’s bid to unseat Rep. Anthony D’Esposito in the 4th Congressional District.
New York Republicans have seized on their party’s signature issue, taking any chance they can get to blame their Democratic opponents for lax border policies and local crimes committed by migrants. Democrats have countered in part by going on the offensive — airing ads with tough-on-the-border language, and blaming former President Donald Trump and the GOP for tanking a potential bipartisan compromise earlier this year.
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Lawrence Levy, executive dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies, said the GOP is “trying to move the U.S.-Mexico border up to the Queens-Nassau County line.”
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Immigration policy and border security have played at least some role in each of New York’s battleground districts. But they have loomed particularly large in two rematches from the 2022 midterms: D’Esposito’s battle against Gillen, the former Hempstead town supervisor; and first-term GOP Rep. Marc Molinaro’s race against Democratic attorney Josh Riley.
In a News 12 Long Island debate last week, D’Esposito proactively brought up Gillen’s ad — accusing her of changing her tune from their race two years ago.
“Two years ago I said that one of the most important things facing the American people was securing our southern border,” he said. “My opponent told me that I was fearmongering.”
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The immigration debate has gone similarly in New York’s 19th District.
Molinaro has seized on Riley’s work as an attorney fighting against some of Trump’s border policies, including the former president’s ban on accepting refugees from mostly Muslim countries and his push to eliminate deportation protections for immigrants who arrived in the country as children.
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Molinaro and his supporters have aired anti-Riley ads highlighting cases in which migrants have been arrested within the district. {snip}
Riley has pushed back with an ad of his own, where he chats with people in a bar as an all-caps message blares on the screen: “Josh Riley opposed President Biden on the border.”
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The Democrats’ tough border talk is straight out of the playbook of Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi, according to Levy, from Hofstra.
Suozzi, a Democrat, won a hard-fought special election earlier this year to replace ousted Republican Rep. George Santos, in part by taking on the issue of immigration head-on.
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