The Republican candidate vying for George Santos’s House seat has suddenly changed her stance on immigration, as she apparently seeks to fearmonger her way to victory in Tuesday’s special election.
Nassau County legislator Mazi Pilip is running to fill the seat vacated by serial fabricator Santos in New York’s 3rd Congressional District. And in hopes of winning votes, she’s taking some hardline positions on immigration, despite having emigrated from Israel and, before that, Ethiopia.
Campaign ads for Pilip warn about a “record invasion” of migrants and Democrats’ “open border agenda.” Just last week, she used the same language again, claiming the Senate’s bipartisan immigration deal “puts into law the invasion currently happening at our southern border.”
But only a few months ago, Pilip was singing a very different tune.
In an October interview with local outlet The Island 360, when Republicans hadn’t yet settled on Pilip as their replacement pick for the House seat, she was stressing the need for a humane immigration policy.
Steven Blank, the publisher of The Island 360, asked Pilip what should be done about the migrants coming to New York City.
“As you know, this country was founded by immigrants. I am immigrated twice,” replied Pilip, whose native language is Amharic. She then described migrants as simply “people coming for better life.”
“Right now the way the situation is, it doesn’t help the American people. And it doesn’t help the migrants as well. So I think this is time for the federal and the state to think better plan, how we can help them.”
Pilip went on to shoot down a proposal to use Nassau Coliseum as a shelter for asylum seekers, urging more care for migrants.
“How you can bring people and put them in Nassau Coliseum? That’s not right. That’s not correct,” she said. “That’s not the way you welcoming migrants. That’s not the way we welcoming migrants, and I’m sorry that’s the plan. That’s not the right plan, not to the Americans, not to the migrants. So the federal government better come up with ideas, and ways, and policies how you are willing to absorb those migrant and give them, you know, the good life they was seeking.”
“Go back to the federal government… to come up with a plan to house those people,” she stressed.
Since then, a whole new Pilip seems to be running for the House.
Tuesday’s special election is so critical that Pilip, and her new anti-immigrant stance, has Nassau County’s entire Republican machine behind her. In fact, she has such strong backing that not a single person is shown on her campaign payroll, according to The New York Times.