Rep. Tom Suozzi, (D–Glen Cove) in partnership with Texas Republican Rep. Morgan Luttrell created a “business, badges and the Bible” coalition to wholly address border security issues, an approach Suozzi said is unique and will hopefully yield results after recent failures.
“Democrats and Republicans in Washington must work together to pass bipartisan immigration reform legislation to firmly secure our borders and establish clear, legal paths to citizenship,” Suozzi said.
The duo brought together a national coalition of stakeholders for a roundtable in Washington, D.C., to seek out bipartisan solutions to the issue. About 50 people attended in person and an additional 70 attended via Zoom.
The purpose of the coalition is to secure the border, change the asylum system and modernize legal immigration.
Suozzi called the current immigration system “outdated” and “scammed” by “organized crime, coyotes and cartels.”
“We are working together to find the best way forward for our country on these important border security and immigration issues,” Luttrell said in a release.
Suozzi said all three aspects of the coalition – businesses, badges and the Bible – have a stake in the issue and are all uniquely impacted.
“‘Businesses’ have a huge stake in immigration reform,” Suozzi said. “Farmers, hospitals, construction, hospitality, and manufacturers all need an immigration fix to better plan the future of our nation’s economic health. Immigrant workers have become essential to the U.S. workforce, contributing across sectors and playing a noteworthy role in our country’s economy.”
As for badges, Suozzi said police need to focus on community policing but that border security is needed to do so.
The Bible is the final component, which Suozzi said is not an exclusive term.
“By using ‘The Bible,’ I refer to those fundamental values, both religious and secular, that Americans have embraced – that all men and women are created equal and are entitled to human respect and dignity,” Suozzi said. “Spiritual and secular leaders of all kinds can join hands to practice what they preach: the Golden Rule, human dignity, and the worth of all people.”
Border security has been a focal point of Suozzi’s return to Congress, taking center stage in the 2024 special election after he gave up his House seat after 3 1/2 terms to make an unsuccesful run for governor. Also notable from Suozzi’s current campaign have been calls for bipartisan action, which he couples with his calls for border security.
“The U.S. faces an immigration crisis because too many politicians have spent too many years ‘weaponizing’ immigration policy-fighting across the aisle—but haven’t done a thing to fix it,” Suozzi said.
In May, Suozzi joined another Texas congressman, Rep. Henry Cuellar, to co-chair the newly formed Democrats for Border Security Task Force, which aims to address immigration and the border crisis while combatting the flow of drugs into the country.
Suozzi is the son of an Italian immigrant, his father, who came to the United States as a child. He later served in World War II where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and then became a judge.
“My father’s immigrant story is a big part of who I am. For my family, it was the classic American Dream. It saddens me now to see how the very word “immigration” has taken on such a negative connotation,” Suozzi said.
Republican candidate Mike LiPetri, who will face off against Suozzi in the race for New York’s Third Congressional seat, expressed doubt about Suozzi’s ability to deliver.
“Tom Suozzi is all talk, no action on the border,” LiPetri said in a statement to Blank Slate. “He says he wants to fix the border crisis, yet proudly supports failed Border Czar Kamala Harris for president. He says he will reach across the aisle to find a solution, yet voted against the End the Border Catastrophe Act. He says he stands with law-abiding American taxpayers, yet supports using our tax dollars to give illegals everything from driver’s licenses and debit cards to free housing and healthcare.”
He added, “The reality is that under Tom Suozzi and Kamala Harris, our border will remain wide open, migrant crime will continue to skyrocket, and our hard-earned tax dollars will be used to pay for everything.”
LiPetri contended that he is the one who could deliver.
“The residents of NY-03 are tired of Tom Suozzi’s gaslighting, they want real action on the border,” LiPetri said. “They want us to restore Remain in Mexico, they want us to deport those here illegally, and they want us to stand with law enforcement to end the migrant crime wave. In Congress, I’ll get the job done and I’ll work to establish a legal, merit-based immigrant system where the best and brightest are fast tracked and criminal monsters get the boot. I’ll restore common sense at the border.”
A solution to the border crisis has been a question for years, with legislation posed in Congress earlier this year to address the recent rise in migrants.
But that legislation failed, notably due to Senate Republicans killing the bill – which lumped together aid for Israel and Ukraine – after former president Trump announced his opposition to it.
Suozzi, who was recently appointed to the Homeland Security Committee, said what separates his coalition from prior attempts to address border security are the partnerships and engagements with groups involved with the issue and those experiencing it.
“A lot of people have worked on legislation that was bipartisan in the past and got it up to the finish line, but they didn’t focus on building that outside coalition of people,” Suozzi said. “So I’m trying to get the outside coalition, who will then speak with individual elected officials that they have contacts with and give them the support they need to pass what would be tough legislation for them to do depending on which party they’re from.”
He said a key component of this recent coalition is its utilization of stakeholders.
“You need outside groups,” Suozzi said. “You need people that are interested in these issues to help you with this – and that’s what I’m focused on doing.”
What some may call pressure, Suozzi called “support” as to what individuals the coalition works with will do when they call on their elected officials to work with bipartisan compromises for border security action.
Trump has called for deportations, but Suozzi said that is not the coalition’s goal. He said that many of the participating organizations don’t support this idea since some migrants have spent decades living in the country and support many industries.
“If you try to deport all of these folks, especially the ones that have been here for 20 or 30 years that have been otherwise playing by the rules, you would be decimated,” Suozzi said of the businesses and industries that rely on immigrants.
Since meeting with the coalition, Suozzi said he has been calling up his fellow members of Congress and organizations to incorporate them as well.