On Wednesday’s MSNBC broadcast of “Tonight with Alex Wagner,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, spoke about the gains from Rep.-elect Tom Suozzi’s victory in the New York House special election. The lesson learned is, “You shouldn’t do that.” “We have to talk about border closures in a tough tone,” but “what’s happening at the border?” [has] This is in direct and inverse relation to the fact that we have a legal immigration system that has taken away all of these legal pathways and is simply not working,” Suozzi said. “We talked about the path to rights.”
Jayapal said, “I guess it depends on what you call Suozzi’s playbook. I — well, Tom Suozzi, congratulations. I look forward to serving with him. He ran a great, disciplined campaign. Second, I think the lesson Democrats need to learn is that we shouldn’t run away from immigration. I think this issue I agree that we need to work on that. Tom was able to do that because he didn’t let Republicans define us. He defined us. Now, he too, Alex, to civil rights. He talked about immigration as an issue that needs to be solved, and he also talked about the hypocrisy of Republicans who didn’t want to solve the issue in the second half of the campaign and wanted to leave it as an issue. He also talked very comprehensively about his own immigration story and about Ellis Island. He had a really comprehensive message. Would that have been a message I would have used in my district? No, but I don’t think it’s a lesson that we have to be tough and talk about border closures. It’s about acceptance.”
she added, “[W]We need our bases, we need immigrant voters, we need an overarching message about the fact that we have a border – the fact that our immigration system is broken and what’s happening at the border. Is required. [has] This is in direct and inverse proportion to the fact that we have a legal immigration system that has taken away all of these legal tools and is simply not working because it hasn’t been reformed for 30 years. there is. ”
Jayapal also said he doesn’t like the border agreement.
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