Race To Succeed George Santos Tests Both Parties’ Immigration Messages

When Republican Mazi Melesa Pilip came out against the Senate’s bipartisan immigration deal last Monday, former Rep. Tom Suozzi ― the Democrat running against her in Tuesday’s special congressional election on Long Island, New York ― thought he had hit pay dirt.

Finally, he could accuse Pilip, a Nassau County legislator running almost entirely on an end to the chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border, of being weaker on border enforcement than he is.

“We finally have a chance to have a solution, and we’re not going to do it, because President Trump said it will help Biden?” Suozzi said Thursday evening, during the race’s sole televised debate. “As Mitt Romney said: That’s appalling.”

Pressed by the moderator to lay out her plan to resolve the immigration issue, Pilip fell back on her indictment of the status quo, for which she said Suozzi, who hasn’t been in Congress in two years, bears responsibility.

“They caused this issue,” she said, referring to President Joe Biden, Suozzi, and other Democrats. “Before we even are addressing the issue inside, we have to make sure first and foremost, we need to secure the border. After that day, we have to come up with the plan.”

Pilip’s response was not exactly coherent ― secure the border without a plan? ― but Republicans are betting it may not have to be. Voters in New York and beyond are frustrated with Biden’s management of the border, and polling shows they trust Republicans more than Democrats to fix the problem by wide margins.

In a recent public poll of the race showing Suozzi ahead of Pilip by 4 percentage points ― a lead within the margin of error ― Pilip still had a significant advantage among voters in a question about who would do a better job of “addressing the influx of