Dem ex-New York Rep. Mondaire Jones claims he’s for harder border safety as he seeks a political comeback — however he championed “defunding” ICE when he ran for workplace in 2020, not too long ago unearthed movies present.
Jones — who’s going through off in opposition to freshman GOP Rep. Mike Lawler on the polls in November — was requested by a frontrunner with the New York Immigration Coalition in a Zoom name in 2020 whether or not he supported defunding the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement company and the US Prospects and Border Safety Border Patrol company.
“I’m in assist of that,” Jones stated on the time.
Jones added through the name that one of many causes he ran for Congress within the Decrease Hudson Valley in 2020 is that he opposed then-predecessor Rep. Nita Lowey and different Democrats agreeing to “improve the price range of ICE by 7% past the degrees that had been accepted by Republicans after they managed the Home of Representatives the 12 months earlier than.”
Outgoing New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the hard-left “Squad” member who misplaced his Democratic major in June to Westchester County Government George Latimer, additionally participated within the distant assembly.
Jones slammed the rise in ICE funding once more throughout one other taped discussion board with the immigrant group in Peekskill — solely he went a lot additional that point.
He stated he would combat to offer the 11 million undocumented immigrants who got here right here illegally a “pathway to citizenship,” which opponents slam as mass amnesty.
“I’ll combat to offer a pathway to citizenship for the entire 11 million undocumented individuals on this nation,” Jones stated.
As well as, Jones additionally supported giving undocumented residents the identical instructional alternatives as residents, in addition to authorized counsel for all asylum hearings.
Noting his personal levels from Stanford College and Harvard Regulation college, Jones stated, “I need everybody no matter immigration standing to have the identical alternatives that I used to be capable of have rising up. That shouldn’t be an exception.”
He stated the so-called Dreamers — undocumented younger adults introduced right here as youngsters and people looking for asylum — ought to have “everlasting safety” within the US “no matter who’s the president of the US.”
Jones stated he’d combat in opposition to the “zero tolerance” coverage of criminally prosecuting border-crossers.
However now, in his present comeback marketing campaign to win again his outdated seat within the seventeenth Home District, Jone stated he helps “bipartisan” Senate border safety laws that “would make progress to safe our border and rent extra border brokers.”
The political motion committee for Home Democrats can also be operating adverts saying Jones is “working to safe the border.”
The Lawler marketing campaign stated Jones can’t be trusted on bolstering border safety given his earlier mantra to “defund” the companies entrusted to take action.
“Mondaire Jones will say or do something to get elected. In 2020, he stated the rationale he was operating for workplace was to defund ICE and Border Patrol, which is nuts,” stated Lawler marketing campaign spokesman Chris Russell.
“Now, he’s making an attempt to say he helps border safety as a result of he is aware of it’s the one manner he can get elected. However voters in NY-17 received’t be fooled by his lies _ Mondaire’s actual place is the one he received caught on tape professing: defund ICE and CBP.”
Jones didn’t reply to a Submit request for remark.
Whereas in workplace, Jones additionally co-signed a letter selling the “No Border Wall Coalition” that demanded the elimination of navy personnel from the US-Mexico border area and advocated for the take-down of boundaries corresponding to razor wire.
In a Fb put up simply weeks earlier, Jones additionally had blasted the US Supreme Court docket for letting former President Trump “get away with” constructing a wall to assist safe the border in addition to impose a ban on immigration from Muslim international locations.
The Cook dinner Political Report charges the extremely aggressive and contentious Lawler-Jones race as “lean” Republican.
The seventeenth Congressional District encompasses all of Rockland and Putnam counties and components of Westchester and Dutchess counties.
Lawler, a former state assemblyman, defeated Democrat Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in 2022.
After redistricting, Jones, the incumbent within the seventeenth District, would have been pitted in opposition to Maloney in a major. He as a substitute moved to New York Metropolis and ran within the extra liberal tenth District encompassing decrease Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn. He misplaced within the major to Rep. Dan Goldman.
He’s now making an attempt a comeback on his outdated turf within the seventeenth District in opposition to Lawler.
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