The border crisis is emerging as a hot issue for the House seat in the Hudson Valley’s 17th District, and Dem ex-Congressman Mondaire Jones’ prior extreme lefty positions on it could come back to haunt him.
Jones backed lax borders and criminal-migrant amnesty during his previous stint in Congress before calling for tougher border security measures during his comeback bid to topple first-term Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in the district, which includes parts of Westchester and Rockland counties, records show.
While in office, Jones co-signed a letter promoting the “No Border Wall Coalition” that demanded the removal of military personnel from the US-Mexico border region and advocated for the take-down of barriers such as razor wire.
“The continued military presence at the border threatens your vow to restore America’s moral and strategic standing on the international plane,” said a March 8, 2021, letter sent to President Biden and co-signed by Jones.
In a Facebook post just weeks earlier, Jones also had blasted the US Supreme Court for letting former President Trump “get away with” building a wall to help secure the border as well as impose a ban on immigration from Muslim countries.
He voted against Republican-sponsored amendments to stop gang members and sex offenders from obtaining a path to citizenship, too — including migrants from the Tren de Aragua gang that is currently terrorizing residents of New York.
Jones also previously blasted funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and called the border-control agency a “racist institution” whose agents commit “unimaginable cruelty” along the border.
“The cruelty is the point. And the fact that the House of Representatives, controlled by Democrats, gave $1.4 billion to #ICE is cause for soul-searching. We have got to do better as a party,” Jones said in a June 6, 2019, statement on X when he first ran for Congress.
On February 3, 2021, Jones, who is black, said, “We’re just three days into #BlackHistoryMonth and ICE has already sent planes full of Black people to Cameroon and Haiti in defiance of @POTUS ’ executive order. ICE is a racist institution.”
He supported legislation to limit deportations and give immigration judges more discretion in proceedings, which critics claimed encouraged “catch and release” policies.
On his website, Jones now says he supports the “bipartisan” Senate border security deal that would bolster border security and hire more border agents.
But Lawyer’s campaign claimed Jones is changing his stripes to hide his pro-open borders, pro-amnesty record.
“Mondaire Jones was ranked as one of the most radical politicians in the entire 117th Congress because of his extreme record. Mondaire supports Sanctuary Cities and amnesty for sex offenders and gang members while opposing border wall funding,” said Lawler campaign spokesman Chris Russell.
“He also called for defunding ICE and attacked federal immigration officers as racists. Mondaire’s votes and rhetoric created the current mess at our border, and he’d make it even worse should he get back to Congress,” the Lawler rep added.
Jones had no immediate comment.
On his website, Jones slammed Lawler for rejecting a proposed border deal that never passed the House and didn’t make it to a vote in the full Senate.
Jones is seeking a comeback to Congress after two years in the political wilderness.
After redistricting in 2022, Jones decided to relocate and ran for the House seat in the 10th District, which covers lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn. He lost in the Democratic primary to now-Rep. Dan Goldman.
Jones then shifted back to the 17th District this year to take on Lawler, who defeated ex-Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, former chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm.
This year’s 17th District outcome could help decide which political party controls the House of Representatives next year.
The Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up.
