Laura Gillen, Democratic nominee for the 4th Congressional District, held a press call alongside Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (10th CD) demanding bipartisan federal action to secure the border and address the migrant crisis ahead of the Sept. 30 funding deadline.
Failure to pass spending bills or a continuing resolution to temporarily extend funding for federal programs by the deadline would cause a partial shutdown of the government on Oct. 1 at 12:01 a.m. A shutdown would close federal agencies and national parks, while limiting public services and furloughing millions of workers.
“We need bipartisan cooperation that transcends partisan impulses to address this issue. We can secure our border, enforce our immigration laws, and fairly compensate New York, which has dealt with the effects of the migrant crisis — but we have to do it together,” Gillen said. “That is why I am calling on the Biden administration and Congress to work together ahead of the upcoming government funding deadline.”
During the call on Thursday morning, Gillen presented a letter addressed to President Joe Biden, urging the administration to work with Congress to send personnel, technology, and infrastructure to the border, hire more asylum officers and immigration judges and compensate New York taxpayers for bearing the cost of the migrant crisis.
“I recognize your administration’s good faith efforts to secure the bipartisan border agreement in the Senate, but the Republican members of the 118th Congress caved to political pressure and chose inaction over bipartisan results,” Gillen said in her letter to Biden. “American citizens are owed more from our leaders and we cannot wait any longer.”
In her letter, Gillen said border patrols are overwhelmed, immigration courts and asylum officers are overloaded and the effects are being felt in New York. She said this crisis has put a strain on public schools resources and the state budget.
Her proposed policy to secure the border and reform the immigration system aims for bipartisanship. In the letter, she proposed a hiring surge for 10,000 border patrol agents to curb illegal crossings; the procurement of sensors, drones, and cameras for border patrol to combat fentanyl trafficking; and reimbursement for expenses incurred by New York while dealing with the migrant crisis.
“We need to elect more lawmakers who are committed to doing the right thing and not just the thing that will help them win. That is Laura Gillen,” Schneider said. “Laura is ready to work with any lawmaker to ensure she advances the policies that will help her district back home — no matter Democrat or Republican.”
With the collapse of the bipartisan border deal in February after former President Trump opposed the deal, Gillen said elected officials have failed to work together to solve the border problem. She said if the bill had passed, it would have seen the hiring of border agents and allocated them more resources to crack down on federal trafficking.
“The deal collapsed because of the blind, zero-sum mentality that has dominated our politics,” Gillen said. “Because Trump wants to campaign on chaos and ordered Republicans to kill the deal, my opponent, with many of his Republican colleagues heeded this order and since then Congress has failed to pursue a realistic legal fix.”
Republican Congressman Anthony D’Esposito (NY-4), Gillen’s opponent, said her “11th-hour calls to secure the border” are too late.
“If Gillen seriously cared about securing our nation, she would urge Sen. Schumer to allow a vote in the Senate on House Republicans’ comprehensive border security plan, which I helped pass as a member of the Homeland Security Committee,” D’Esposito said.
D’Esposito said Gillen’s Democratic colleagues allowed nearly 15 million people to enter the country illegally.
“The empty rhetoric and finger-pointing of elected officials in Congress, characterized by a lack of commitment to real solutions, fail to serve the interests of Americans,” Gillen said in the letter.
Gillen said that when she was the Town of Hempstead supervisor, she was able to reach across the aisle and work with Republicans to lower taxes and implement “comprehensive ethics reforms.” She said this is the bipartisan approach she wants to see with the border crisis, as the country nears the crucial funding deadline.
“The time for action is now, and it requires your administration to be willing to prioritize effective governance, including exercising executive authority, to address this issue head on. Long Island, New York State and the entire nation deserve better,” Gillen said in the letter.
