On Sunday and Monday, Congressman Tom Suozzi, along with nine other members of the Problem Solvers Caucus traveled to the communities of McAllen and Mission, Texas to assess the situation at the southern border. Suozzi and the Problem Solvers met with local officials, mayors, businesses, non-profits, including Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, and border patrol and local law enforcement officials. Photos from the trip can be found here.
During their trip, Suozzi and members of the Problem Solvers Caucus pledged to work together and find common ground to address this on-going problem. Suozzi first encountered the issue as mayor of his hometown 27 years ago when he addressed the issue of Central American day workers gathering on street corners in Glen Cove. Suozzi reaffirms his commitment to work across the aisle to keep our borders secure, while ensuring humanity remains a main pillar of United States immigration policy.
“The situation at our southern border did not become a crisis overnight. It has been both a legal and humanitarian issue for more than 30 years. While in McAllen and Mission, Texas over the last two days, I met with local officials, mayors, businesses, not-for-profits, charities, border patrol, and local law enforcement; all of whom have been working their hardest, under incredibly difficult circumstances to both secure our borders and protect the most vulnerable among us, families and young children, from the exploitation of smugglers and cartels,” said Suozzi. “Finger pointing and political jabs are not only not helpful, they distract us from doing the job we were elected to do; solve this very real problem. The bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus is resolute in coming together to address this situation and I call upon my colleagues in both the House and Senate to join us. The time is now; lives are in peril.”
More specifically, stops made by Suozzi and the Congressional delegation include: Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley’s Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, TX, the McAllen Border Patrol Station, the Donna Land Port of Entry connecting Donna, TX with Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection soft-sided facility in Donna, TX, and a Rio Grande Boat Tour with the Texas Department of Public Safety, Operation Lone Star. In Congress, Suozzi is a strong advocate for immigration reform. Earlier this year, Suozzi made an impassioned case for Dreamers and providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and TPS recipients. In 2019, Suozzi wrote an op-ed in the New York Times calling for a grand compromise on immigration and in 2018, Suozzi brought a Dreamer from Long Island to the State of the Union. In addition, Suozzi visited the southern border in 2018 to see first-hand the impacts of the Federal government’s inability to address immigration reform. When he was Mayor of Glen Cove, Suozzi established the first Day Worker site on the East Coast.
Original source found here.
