Congressman Suozzi's Statement on Action to Bring Order to Border and Immigration System, Enable Work for Immigrants Living in U.S. for 10 Years

On May 9, Suozzi sent a bipartisan letter to President Biden with Republican colleague Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA). The letter asked the President to issue "an executive order to help bring order to the border by 1) restricting the abuse of the asylum process by cartels guiding migrants between ports of entry, and 2) raising the credible fear standard to a higher threshold. Pursuant to The Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. § 1182), the President may restrict the entry of any "aliens or of any class of aliens" that would be "detrimental to the interests of the United States."

On June 4, the President took action to fix the asylum system and speed up deportations. Today, the President will take action on the letter's other request to "expand our tax-paying labor force  by extending legal work permits to the 1.1 million immigrant spouses married to U.S. citizens." At the time, the letter estimated that such a move would "generate $16 billion in growth to the U.S. GDP."

"Everyone already believes that if you marry a U.S. citizen, then you become a citizen. For over one million people living in the U.S. for the last 10 years, that has not been the case. Today's action rights that wrong and infuses our businesses with legal labor from neighbors who have lived here for over a decade. It keeps families together and strengthens our economy." said Congressman Tom Suozzi (NY-03). “Today's action, paired with the White House's recent action to fix the asylum system, is a clear sign that people are beginning to get serious about tackling immigration and border security. We must have “order at the border” and we must fix our immigration system. These executive orders are important, but now we must pass substantial bipartisan legislation."