In 7th, Wild and Mackenzie want border crossings reduced but differ on methods
Both blame each other’s parties on lack of progress on issue
Editor’s note: This is part of a series that will examine four issues in the 7th Congressional District race between incumbent Democrat Susan Wild and her Republican challenger Ryan Mackenzie, a state representative in the 187th District.
Besides immigration, the other issues are abortion, the economy and foreign affairs. The 7th Congressional District covers all of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties and a tiny part of Monroe County. The Nov. 5 election is considered a toss-up by national political analysts.
Incumbent Democrat Susan Wild and her Republican challenger Ryan Mackenzie share several views when it comes to immigration.
Both have voiced dissatisfaction with policies that led to a record number of 2.5 million encounters with migrants who tried to enter the U.S. through the Mexican border legally or illegally in 2023 – a number that has since fallen dramatically.
Both have accused the other’s party of blocking action to stem the flow. And both said they have taken action to show their commitment to addressing the issue.
“There is unquestionably a crisis at our Southern border — and this is something that almost everyone, no matter their political persuasion, can agree on,” said Wild, who is seeking a fourth term in the 7th Congressional District.
Wild criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson for declaring a bipartisan Senate bill “dead-on-arrival” had it reached the House floor. Democrats said Republicans spurned the bill that also included aid to Ukraine after former President Donald Trump in February called it a “death wish.”
“Sadly, rather than fixing the problem, members of Congress have long treated the Southern border as a lightning rod to advance their own agenda,” Wild said in an op-ed that appeared in The Morning Call.
Mackenzie, a state representative in the 187th District, said Wild and the Democrats hurt Americans with their immigration policies, writing in a Facebook post in July: “The tidal wave of illegal immigration under Joe Biden & Susan Wild has put a massive strain on schools, hospitals, law enforcement, and the housing market!.”
The 7th Congressional District race comes as there is a distinct difference between Democrats and Republicans in Pennsylvania on the importance of immigration as an election issue.
In an August Quinnipiac University poll, where registered voters were asked to pick the most important issue in deciding who to vote for on Nov. 5 for president, immigration ranked third with 10% picking it. The top answers were the economy (32%) followed by preserving democracy (25%).
When broken down by party, 20% of the Republicans chose immigration whereas the issue didn't appear in the Democrats’ top three choices. Among independents, 10% chose it as the most important issue.
Here is a closer look at where the candidates stand on immigration.
Susan Wild
Wild, a former lawyer who lives in South Whitehall Township, favors immigration reform that seeks to restrict crossings through increased personnel, technology and, where needed, border walls. She also has advocated for better treatment for asylum seekers and a pathway to citizenship for the so-called Dreamers, noncitizen adults who were brought to the U.S. without legal documentation by their parents as children.
“Throughout my time in Congress, I have worked with Democrats and Republicans to push for reform at our Southern border, and I have consistently supported bipartisan solutions that would crack down on the flow of illegal immigration and fentanyl into our communities,” she said in a statement to Armchair Lehigh Valley.
“I will continue to put politics aside and pursue real solutions to restore order at the Southern border.”
She supported the bipartisan bill rejected by the Senate in a 49-50 vote in February. The bill would have made it harder to gain asylum, expand the number of detention beds, hire more asylum officers and security agents, increase screenings for fentanyl and other illicit drugs and close the border if more than 5,000 migrants a day try to cross unlawfully in the course of a week or more than 8,500 in any given day.
It also would have provided $60.1 billion for Ukraine, $14.1 billion in security assistance for Israel and $10 billion in humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones including Gaza, the West Bank and Ukraine, according to The New York Times.
“It was probably harsher than any Democrat would have been comfortable with but we would have voted for it,” Wild said in a BBC interview. “And the House Speaker said it was dead on arrival. He wouldn’t even take it up.”
Wild is a member of the Border Security Task Force, a group of moderate Democrats focused on cutting down on the illegal flow of narcotics into the U.S., strengthening partnerships with Canada and Mexico to help deal with the crisis, and equipping jurisdictions that receive asylum seekers with the proper resources.
On May 7, Wild joined 14 Democratic colleagues in calling on President Biden to take executive action to use all the tools at his disposal to better address security at the Southern border, stop fentanyl from pouring into the U.S. and allow for orderly legal immigration.
“It has become clear that the current situation remains untenable, but with Republicans playing politics on border security, it is time for your administration to act,” the letter said.
One month later, on June 5, Biden issued a presidential proclamation that bars migrants from being granted asylum when the number of border encounters between ports of entry hits 2,500 per day, according to The Associated Press. The figure was lower than the 5,000 in the failed Senate bipartisan bill.
By then, encounters at the southern border had already been down 40% thanks to tough measures by Mexico at the behest of President Joe Biden. Those measures include rounding up migrants and transporting them to the southern cities of Villahermosa and Tapachula, The Associated Press reported.
A month later in July, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said it recorded 56,408 monthly encounters with migrants trying to enter legally or illegally along the southwest border.
That was the lowest monthly total since September 2020 when Trump was still in office.
As president, Trump did not sign any immigration bills while his party controlled the House and Senate. He did, however, sign 472 influential execution actions on immigration and his 2019 Homeland Security bill provided $1.375 billion for building about 55 miles of barrier walls in the Rio Grande Valley region.
Wild also is a co-sponsor of The Dignity Act of 2023 (H.R.3599), which was referred to a subcommittee in May 2023. Among its numerous measures, the bill would authorize $25 billion to improve border security and establish humanitarian campuses along the U.S.-Mexico border for asylum seekers. It also would provide a path to permanent resident status to the Dreamers.
She was a co-sponsor HR 6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021, which created a path for citizenship for undocumented residents who arrived in the U.S. before they were age 18. The measure passed then Democratic-controlled House 228-197 in March 2021. The Senate held hearings but never took a vote.
She co-sponsored and voted yes to HR 1333, the No Ban Act, which would have limited the president's authority to suspend or restrict undocumented individuals from entering the United States. It passed the House in February 2021 in a 218-208 votes. It was referred to the Senate, where no action was taken.
Mackenzie said Wild called building walls “a silly idea” in a 2018 forum that aired on WFMZ-TV’s “Business Matters.” In a recent debate on BRCTV-13, Wild said she has voted in favor of wall funding at least once and supports walls where they make sense.
Ryan Mackenzie
Mackenzie, of Lower Macungie Township, has made immigration a focal point of his campaign, including visiting the Mexican border on Sept. 12 and 13 with Arizona’s Cochise County Sheriff's Office.
Mackenzie said Biden is to blame for “our country being invaded by thousands of illegal immigrants,” pointing to his decision to halt construction of Trump’s border wall.
If elected, he said his “top priority [would be] building the wall and securing our border.” He also believes people who cross the border illegally should not be given a path to citizenship.
During a Lehigh Valley Tea Party forum, Mackenzie said crime and drugs are a result of President Biden’s “open borders” policies.
On his campaign website, he said he wants to take action on illegal immigration by withholding taxpayer-funded grants from sanctuary cities and requiring deportation for illegal immigrants caught committing other crimes.
He wants to crack down on birth tourism in which foreign women allegedly have babies in the U.S. so they can be U.S. citizens. He wants to reinstate Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy, which would require asylum seekers who pass a “credible fear screening” with U.S. asylum officers to return to Mexico to await their hearings.
His campaign website says he wants to promise “merit-based legal immigration that protects American workers, promotes American values, and rewards connections to America like speaking English.”
Mackenzie has been endorsed by Trump, who wants to use the National Guard to help round up and remove undocumented workers if he is elected president.
When asked if he supports the plan, Mackenzie’s campaign released a statement saying, his “immediate priority, before anything else, needs to be border security that staunches the flow of illegal immigrants into our nation. That means finishing the wall, reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy, ending catch and release, adding additional infrastructure to the border, and hiring more border officers.”
Further, he said, there needs to be a nationwide E-Verify system.
Mackenzie was the prime sponsor of Pennsylvania’s Construction Industry Employee Verification Act of 2019, which requires construction companies to run potential employees through the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program to check their eligibility for employment.
He is the prime sponsor of House Bill 274, which would require all public contractors and subcontractors to use the E-Verify system. It was referred to the House Labor and Industry Committee last year.
Mackenzie is the prime sponsor of House Bill 1066, which would require the Pennsylvania State Police to notify the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and the Pennsylvania Attorney Genera’s office of all attempts to purchase firearms by persons who are illegally or unlawfully in the U.S. There have been no votes on the measure. The legislation was referred to the House Judiciary Committee last year.
He also wants to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities.
“Ryan believes that local law enforcement should inform ICE [U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement] when they have detained a criminal illegal immigrant, and that they should be quickly deported,” the statement said.
In an Aug. 24 post on X, formerly Twitter, Mackenzie suggested the possibility that there are “many” unaccompanied migrant children living in the Lehigh Valley. He did not cite his source.
“Thanks to the open borders policies of Susan Wild, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris, hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children are missing and at risk. Given the numerous flights of unaccompanied migrant children into the Lehigh Valley, there are likely many right here in our community. Help us secure the border and end Wild's dangerous border policies,” the post said.
Mackenzie has received support from American Action Network, a conservative advocacy group that acts independently of candidates in its expenditures on elections.
The American Action Network is spending $1.5 million in an issue advocacy campaign in the 7th Congressional District. Its ad paints Wild as someone who is “blocking solutions.”
In an ad watch, The Morning Call said the ad was misleading and lacked critical context regarding her no vote on House Bill 2. Called the Secure the Border Act, it passed the House 219-213 on May 11 with no Democratic votes.
“It is inaccurate to say that Wild is ‘blocking solutions,’ because both Democrats and Republicans have proposed solutions to address increasing migration, but have not been able to come to a compromise,” the ad watch said.
Mackenzie opposed the bipartisan Senate bill that sank after Johnson’s and Trump’s remarks.
While he supports provisions such as expanding beds and hiring more security agents, Mackenzie told Armchair Lehigh Valley last spring that he dislikes other parts, including codifying a 5,000-a-day trigger that could be exercised with discretion for shutting down the border.
“We should be shutting down the border to all illegal crossings immediately and it should be mandatory,” he told Armchair Lehigh Valley.
Mackenzie criticized Wild for not supporting a series of measures that drew Republican support in the House, including measures condemning Biden’s border policies.
She also voted no to a bill that would make it illegal for noncitizens to vote in elections in Washington, D.C. While non-citizens can’t vote in federal and state elections, D.C. has a law allowing them to vote in local elections. HR 192 passed 262-142 on May 23 and was referred to the Senate.
“Susan Wild voted NO to stopping illegal immigrants from voting in America’s elections. It's time for a Representative who puts the American people first,” he said in a July Facebook post.
Wild also voted no to HR 2, which passed 219-213 on May 23. The Johnson-supported bill would have supplied money to build more walls at the border, enhance technology and increase enforcement, raise the standard for proving qualification for asylum, expand detention capacity, return asylum seekers to Mexico or Canada pending their removal proceedings or reviews and enact fines and imprisonment for foreigners who overstay their visas.
It also would require U.S. employers to use an electronic employment verification system.
Blaming illegal immigration on a 276% increase in child labor law violations in Pennsylvania, Mackenzie proposed House Bill 1714, which provides stronger penalties to employers who illegally hire minors and mandates notification to authorities of cases involving unaccompanied minors. There have been no votes on the measure.
He voted no to state HB 1067, which would waive the citizenship requirement to obtain a teacher certificate in Pennsylvania if the individual holds a valid immigrant or work visa, or a valid employment authorization document allowing them to work in the United States. The bill passed the House 110-93 in June 2023. It did not move to the Republican-controlled Senate.
Meanwhile, the Mackenzie campaign has taken Wild to task for a pro-Wild advertisement paid for by House Majority Forward, a hybrid PAC that can act as both a traditional PAC, giving money directly to candidates’ committees, and a super PAC, making independent expenditures not coordinated with candidates.
The ad, which was independently created, features someone called “Officer Jeff Potts” discussing the fentanyl crisis and U.S.-Mexico border security.
“We’re fighting fentanyl in our communities. Susan Wild has our back,” he says. “Working with both parties to hire thousands of new border agents and breaking with Democrats to crack down on cartels. Tell Susan Wild to keep leading by passing her new border security bill.”
The New York Post reported that Potts is not a full-time police officer but has worked for the Emmaus Police Department as an “auxiliary” officer.
Though Wild had no control over the ad, Arnaud Armstrong, a spokesman for Mackenzie for Congress, said Wild was trying to “trick the voters” and has engaged in “stolen valor” in using Potts in the ad.
In an ad watch, The Morning Call said, “The ad is partially misleading — specifically, the chyron that identifies the subject of the ad as ‘Officer Jeff Potts’ is misleading, because Potts is in fact an auxiliary, part-time police officer.”