Malliotakis says it is “not anti-immigrant” to want secure borders

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) expressed her concern for security along the United States’s borders, arguing that wanting secure borders is “not anti-immigrant.”

Malliotakis was asked about requests from some United States lawmakers asking for the U.S. to grant expedited refugee status to Gaza residents, as they are in the middle of a war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas. The New York representative explained that she has been calling for border security “even before this horrific war in Israel” and that “hundreds of individuals” on the U.S. terror watch list have been found at the border.

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“We know that Iran has made specific threats against the United States, saying that they were going to, you know, counter for what happened to Soleimani on our own soil,” Malliotakis said. “We don’t know who’s among the 1.7 million individuals who have snuck into our country and have evaded all of government and all of law enforcement. We don’t know who they are, where they are, or what their intentions are.”

The New York representative stressed that securing the borders of the U.S. is important and that she has been “sounding this alarm” in a post-9/11 country.

“It’s not anti-immigrant to say you want to know who is coming in and out of our country,” Malliotakis said. “It’s not anti-immigrant to say that we want secure borders. In fact, I represent a district in which we have a large immigrant population, people from all over the world, and they’re telling me the same thing: They want secure borders.”

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Malliotakis’s concern for border security comes as 659 known or suspected terrorists were apprehended attempting to illegally enter the U.S. in the fiscal year 2023 that ended Sept. 30. A majority of these people were apprehended at the U.S. northern border, according to CBP data.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) have both spoken out against the U.S. potentially accepting Gaza refugees, with DeSantis arguing that surrounding “Arab states” should instead take them in. Scott also expressed a similar view, noting that “Iran has lots of room.”