Rep. Tom Suozzi will deliver a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday that will focus on immigration as the Democratic Party seeks to counter the Republican Party’s stance on the issue during the presidential election season.
“If we make it clear that we support securing the border through the bipartisan deal, that was undercut by [former President Donald Trump], that evens up the polls in the case of immigration,” Suozzi said.
Suozzi’s speech, which will be featured during the convention night’s theme, “A Fight For Our Freedoms,” will be given in front of 25,000 attendees in Chicago.
Other speakers on Wednesday night include Democratic Vice Presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, former President Bill Clinton, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Suozzi gained national attention as a Democrat who successfully campaigned on immigration issues during his special election this past February when he was re-elected to his former congressional seat after former Rep. George Santos was ousted from office.
Border security has been a focal point of Suozzi’s return to Congress.
Suozzi, who is running for re-election against Republican Mike LiPetri, said the border is broken and has called for reforms in the immigration system, seeking to secure the border, change the asylum system and modernize legal immigration.
A solution to the border crisis has been a question for years, with legislation posed in Congress earlier this year to address the recent rise in migrants.
Suozzi supported the federal bipartisan immigration bill presented in Congress in January, pushing for its advancement as he campaigned in the special election.
But that legislation failed, notably due to Senate Republicans killing the bill – which lumped together aid for Israel and Ukraine – after Trump announced his opposition to it.
Suozzi said this issue is one that electeds have “played politics with.” He said Trump’s “sabotaging” the deal showed that Republicans were weaponizing the issue and not actually seeking to address it.
Suozzi applauded Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, for supporting the deal.
“The bottom line is that the people of the United States of America are concerned about the border,” Suozzi said. “What we’ve seen is that if we talk about the border and show that we’re willing to support the bipartisan Senate deal that was proposed earlier this year, the American people like that.”
Suozzi’s current campaign also includes calls for bipartisan action, which he couples with his calls for border security.
Suozzi praised Harris’ shift from her progressive stances in the 2020 presidential election to a centrist approach consistent with his bipartisan focus. He also praised Walz, whom Suozzi described as a moderate.
“People are sick of the attacks and the extremism,” Suozzi said. “They’re sick of the ‘gotcha.’ They want people to work together, solve the problems and make the world a better place.”
He called the Harris-Walz campaign “joyful.”
“This campaign has effectively made that choice clear: do you want to vote for hope or do you want to vote for fear?” Suozzi said. “People have to decide that.”
Suozzi said his campaign approach to immigration is to represent the people of his district.
“I’m running to be representative,” Suozzi said. “I’m to represent the people and the people want these issues fixed. They don’t want to hear the blather or the attacking. They want us to work together.”
Suozzi’s speech is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. and can be watched live via C-SPAN.
