Jayapal: Suozzi ‘Talked About a Path to Citizenship’ — Lesson Isn’t to Be ‘Tough’ on Border

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) stated that the lesson from Rep.-Elect Tom Suozzi’s victory in New York’s U.S. House special election “should not be you’ve got to talk tough and talk about shutting down the border” but that “what’s happening at the border [has] a direct and inverse relationship to the fact that we have taken away all of these legal pathways and we have a legal immigration system that simply isn’t working” and noted that Suozzi “talked about a path to citizenship.”

Jayapal said, “I think it depends on what you call the Suozzi playbook. I’m — well, congratulations to Tom Suozzi. I served with him before, looking forward to serving with him again. He ran a great, disciplined campaign. Secondly, I think what Democrats should learn is, don’t run away from immigration. I agree that we need to lean into this issue. And that is what Tom did, because he didn’t let Republicans define us. He defined us. Now, he also, Alex, talked about a path to citizenship. He talked about the issue of immigration as being one that needs to be fixed, and later on in the campaign, he also talked about the hypocrisy of Republicans who don’t want to fix it, who want to leave it out there as an issue to just try to divide us. He also was very, very inclusive in talking about his own immigration story, in talking about Ellis Island. He really had a fairly inclusive message. Was it exactly the message I would’ve used in my district? No. But that’s — I think that the lesson should not be you’ve got to talk tough and talk about shutting down the border. It’s about talking about immigration, embracing it.”

She added, “[W]e need our base, we need immigrant voters, and we need an inclusive message that is real about the fact that the border is — the immigration system is broken and that what’s happening at the border [has] a direct and inverse relationship to the fact that we have taken away all of these legal pathways and we have a legal immigration system that simply isn’t working because it’s 30 years old and hasn’t been reformed.”