I grew up in the pews of St. Michael's in South Glens Falls, where I learned the Book of Isaiah calls us to be repairers of the breach. That means welcoming people seeking refuge and treating them as our neighbors.

My family has been in the North Country for 7 generations: Irish immigrants two centuries ago and Italian immigrants through Ellis Island in the early 1900s, both looking for a fairer future in America. I know that similar stories are woven through families and towns across NY-21.

Right now, our immigration system is broken. Billions of dollars fund corrupt contracts and raids rip apart families who have lived here legally for years, worked here, and paid taxes here. None of this makes anyone here safer or the North Country more secure. It's just expensive cruelty and political theatre.

Congress must pass comprehensive reform with a clear, achievable pathway to citizenship for legal migrants, and we must hire more judges and asylum officers to restore accountability. We can invest in smart security at the southern border, eliminate wasteful spending, stop handing out $50,000 signing bonuses to new hires, and end construction on a detention facility in Plattsburgh. Instead, I support fully funding Custom Border Patrol at our northern border and reopening 24-hour crossings at Chateauguay, Overton Corners, Rouses Point, and Trout River.  

My commitment is to honor both the law and the humanity of the people who seek a better life here, just as my family once did. We repair the breach by remembering that welcoming the stranger is not only a moral command — it is the story of America itself.