Progressives are uneasy with Democrats tilting right on immigration after N.Y. race
Progressives and immigration advocates are pushing back against Democrats who say New York's special election proves that the party should go further right on immigration.
WASHINGTON — Progressive lawmakers and immigration advocates are pushing back against Democrats who say the lesson from their recent special election victory in a bellwether New York district is to actively champion stricter migration and border laws.
“I don’t think that’s the lesson at all,” Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, the progressive caucus whip, said in an interview one day after Rep.-elect Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., won a competitive election Tuesday.
“Long term for the Democratic Party, we have to get back with the American people on the idea that immigration is a good thing,” Casar said. “Regardless of any short-term win in any given district, if we don’t get back to touting that immigration is good … we will always be on the back foot and on the defensive on the issue. Because if our pitches were Republican Light and [theirs] were Republican on immigration, I don’t think we’ll ever win that fight in the middle or the long term.”
Suozzi won a district that the GOP carried by 8 points in 2022 after he went on offense over border security, arguing that Democrats want to tighten asylum laws while the GOP, including his opponent Mazi Pilip, are simply playing political games with it.
In a memo hours later, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Democrats should “go on offense” as Suozzi did on the bipartisan deal Murphy struck and Republicans rejected, saying it was “filled with tough, conservative policy, including an ability for the President to shut down parts of the border to asylum claims when the system is overwhelmed.” The White House said the voters delivered a “devastating repudiation of congressional Republicans” for killing the “toughest, fairest border security legislation in decades.”
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