Long Island’s two House Dems defied their party’s leaders last week to back a GOP-led spending bill that pumps more cash into ICE — sparking outrage from lefties demanding they be booted from office.
Reps. Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi — two proudly self-described “moderate” Democrats representing large portions of Long Island — joined their Republican colleagues Thursday in passing a $64.4 billion funding package for the Department of Homeland Security that includes about $10 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The pair’s votes, which helped the bill pass the House 220-207, has sparked sharp pushback from many Democrats who are now publicly calling for the pair to be challenged in their primary races.
But both representatives defended their positions and even blasted back at their colleagues for voting against the funding.
“I support funding our immigration enforcement and the commonsense guardrails that have been included in this package,” Gillen said in a statement.
“I’m shocked my colleagues would vote to cut off national and community security funding while leaving ICE to operate under the status quo,” she said.
Gillen and Suozzi were joined by five other Democrats in passing the bill — while Republican Rep. Thomas Massie was the lone “no” vote in the GOP.
Massie and Democrats argued that the measure gave a “blank check” to ICE and lacked meaningful accountability as the agency’s practices have become more controversial, especially with temperatures flaring over its controversial operations in Minneapolis, which critics have called “authoritarian.”
Suozzi shot back in a statement that although “there is no question ICE has overstepped its bounds,” the bill’s passage “ensures continuity for the critical agencies that keep our country safe and functioning.”
But that reasoning isn’t good enough for most of his Democratic colleagues, especially progressives such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, who said “there is no excuse” for the rogue Dems’ votes.
Republicans such as Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman — the top-elected local pol in the defecting representatives’ districts and the presumptive GOP nominee in this year’s gubernatorial race — were even not impressed with the bi-partisanship, although for a different reason.
“Congresswoman Laura Gillen and Congressman Tom Suozzi are not fooling anyone with their sudden effort to rebrand themselves ‘moderates’ and ‘run for cover’ against the tide of socialist extremists who have taken over their political party,” Blakeman’s rep, Chris Boyle, told The Post.
Both Gillen and Suozzi represent large swaths of Nassau County — where Blakeman signed a controversial partnership with ICE last year, which he has touted as the “most comprehensive” local-federal partnership in the country.
In neighboring Suffolk County, Republican Reps. Andrew Garbarino and Nick LaLota both voted to pass the funding appropriations bill.
The bill, which now must pass the Senate, facing a hurdle from upper chamber Dems, before it could be signed into law by President Trump, would provide funding through Sept. 30.
