Josh Riley’s Border Plan, Candidate for New York’s 19th District

Posted on by Vaseline

Josh Riley, the Democratic candidate for Congress in New York’s 19th Congressional District, outlines his plan and criticizes Marc Molinaro’s record.

Josh Riley
| Special to the USA TODAY Network

play

America’s immigration system is broken and politicians like Marc Molinaro have failed us by refusing to fix it.

There have been more than four million border crossings in the two years since Molinaro took office — more than at any time in our history. With so many crossings, it has become nearly impossible to tell who is here for good reason and who is here to cause harm. We must stop the drug cartels from smuggling fentanyl into our neighborhoods. We must also provide sanctuary for those with legitimate claims to asylum — like the desperate single mother with young children fleeing the violence of the cartels. The current system is so broken that we are failing at both.

The immigration backlog has spiraled out of control. It now takes more than four years for the government to screen immigrants. Meanwhile, taxpayers are forced to pay for shelters and other services. It’s not fair to make the people of Upstate New York pay for politicians’ lack of courage to solve the problem.

Marc Molinaro has only made matters worse. He defeated a bipartisan bill that would have secured the border by adding thousands of new agents and improving technology to stop fentanyl smuggling. The Border Patrol Union supported that plan, but Molinaro opposed it after his party leaders told him to keep the border open so they could exploit the crisis during election season. They care more about their political careers than solving problems.

I’m going to do it differently. This is my plan:

  • First, we need to secure the border so that we can control who comes in and stop those who want to do harm. We can do this with a combination of physical barriers, more officers, and better technology. No one should be able to just walk in. Anyone with a criminal record — like the violent Peruvian gang leader arrested in Endicott this month — should be detained and sent away.
  • Secondly, we need a faster process for processing paperwork. To do that, we need more judges and we need to update the law to give them clearer criteria to apply.
  • Third, we must honor American values. Generations of immigrants came from all over the world to upstate New York to work in local factories. They built our community. Today, our agriculture, hospitality, and health care industries depend on hardworking immigrants. My wife is the daughter of immigrants who came here legally from India and Ecuador to build a better life. That is the American dream.

And that’s why we shouldn’t ban people just because of their faith. We shouldn’t punish people who have spent years building a life here, working hard, paying taxes, playing by the rules, and contributing to the community in meaningful ways — like starting a small business or serving in the military. We shouldn’t separate innocent children from their families and put them in cages. Molinaro must disagree with those values ​​because he’s spending millions on attack ads against me for defending them — but I know most Upstate New Yorkers share them.

Josh Riley is the Democratic candidate for Congress in New York’s 19th congressional district.

Avatar for Vaseline
Vaseline https://newspowergreen.biz.id

You May Also Like

More From Author