Migrant Crisis Dominates Mazi vs Suozzi Election
By Rupert Deedes
The Migrant Crisis has emerged as the leading issue in the 3rd Congressional District special election, with Republican Mazi Pilip and Democrat Tom Suozzi holding dueling press conferences outside the 2000-man Migrant "Mega-Tent City" in the parking lots at Creedmore in Northeast Queens, last Thursday.
Mazi Pilip was the first to schedule a press conference outside the Migrant Tent City.
With Congressman Anthony D'Esposito (R- East Rockaway) standing next to her, Pilip accused Suozzi of supporting the open-borders policy of President Joseph Biden.
"Look around me, that playground used to be full of young kids playing here," stated Mazi Pilip. "Now parents tell me they are afraid to bring their children here -- why? Because just across the street in the back, a massive tent city was built to house over 1,000 migrant men."
Over 160,000 alien Migrants have been moved into New York City due to the Biden "open border" policy - with tens of thousands currently placed in derelict hotels, requisitioned school buildings, and tent cities in Queens. Even the Democratic Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, has described the migrant invasion as "a crisis" that "will destroy the city."
Suozzi, then arrived at Pilip’s press event, and held his own press conference tight after her. With the migrants' tents behind him, he claimed Pilip was not being available to the press and that Pilip had agreed to only one TV debate with him.
"In this post-age of George Santos, I don't know how anybody can think they can run for U.S. Congress for the 3rd Congressional district and not be transparent with the people, not make themselves completely available in every single way," Suozzi said.
“I’ve proposed concrete ideas about what needs to be done to solve the problems that we face," stated Suozzi. "But she has not.”
Suozzi blamed the Republicans in Congress - not the Biden administration - for the crisis on migration, charging that the GOP would rather use the problem of immigration as a campaign issue than solve it.
The district has become more Republican as a result of redistricting, with Levittown, Massapequa, Mineola and Whitestone - all Republican strongholds, included in the district.
The newspaper Politico reported that the recruitment of a strong candidate like Mazi Pilip - an incumbent Nassau Legislator who won reelection with over 60% of the vote last fall - and the inclusion of more Republican voters in the district, has led the Congressional Leadership Fund, the largest House GOP super PAC, to invest $1.5 million airing ads highlighting the migrant crisis. The CLP has spent an additional $850,000 on pro-Mazi streaming on social media platform and mailings.
The pro-Mazi ads accuse Suozzi of rolling “out the red carpet for illegal immigrants” and plays an audio recording of Suozzi saying, “I kicked ICE out of Nassau County.”
The Suozzi campaign has began airing its own ads on the immigration issue. One ad features a clip of Suozzi on Fox News defending the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with the narrator saying, “Tom Suozzi will work with both parties to close illegal immigration routes but open paths to citizenship for those who follow the rules.”
In another ad, launched this week, Suozzi talks directly to the camera, telling voters: “The southern border is 2,000 miles away. But the migrant crisis has landed right in our own backyard,” reiterating his commitment to work across the aisle to solve the crisis.
The Migrant Crisis is real, and has become the defining issue in the race between Democrat Tom Suozzi and Republican Mazi Pilip to fill the vacant seat in NY-3.