NEW YORK MINUTE: New York City Council member Julie Menin is pumping the brakes on her bill that would require most hotels to be licensed, agreeing Sunday to postpone the hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday. The bill introduced this month had hotel owners fuming — arguing it’s a giveaway to the union, whose support Menin wants. Now, the sides will hit the negotiating table. BORDERLINE: Today marks T-minus 99 days until Election Day, and border security remains among the most potent of wedge issues. Republicans are settling on a line of attack that slams presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris as “border czar” of the Biden administration and links down-ballot Democrats to her. Democrat House challengers are going on the offensive despite the issue being considered Republican turf — even if it means knocking leaders of their own party, POLITICO reports. “I’ve opposed the president, and I’ll fight for real solutions, more agents, stronger enforcement and laws that are tough and fair,” Josh Riley says in a new TV ad this week. The upstate Democrat is locked in a rematch against Rep. Marc Molinaro, who characterizes his opponent as opportunistic. Laura Gillen, the Long Island Democrat facing Rep. Anthony D’Esposito for a second time, told Playbook, “The issue that’s of grave concern for my district is securing our border and reforming our immigration laws, and it’s something that the GOP has completely failed on.” It will be a difficult, if necessary, climb for Democrats. “It’s more like trying to get back to even with voters on who can handle immigration and showing that we actually care about the issue,” Lanae Erickson of the center-left think tank Third Way told Playbook. In some of the latest evidence that the border will stay top of mind, American Action Network — a sister organization to Congressional Leadership Fund, the House Republican Leadership super PAC — has launched a $3.5 million TV, digital and mail push across the six New York House battlegrounds on two advocacy campaigns. One is the “Remain in Mexico” policy, and their ads urge GOP Rep. Nick LaLota and Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan to reinstate it. (The group says LaLota “gets it.” Ryan, for his part, has long called for “order at the border.”) It goes without saying that Republicans are holding fast to border control as their signature issue. Molinaro, D’Esposito and other Republicans facing tough reelection fights, Reps. Mike Lawler and Brandon Williams, introduced the Illegal Offender Registry Act earlier this month. Molinaro continuously references Riley’s time as counsel to the U.S. Senate, when the Democrat challenged former President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from Muslim-majority countries. He criticized “Josh Riley’s legal arguments that Biden has rested his dismantling of the Trump border security policies on.” And D’Esposito said, “If Laura Gillen actually cared about securing America’s borders instead of playing politics, she would demand accountability from Kamala Harris for her failure to end the migrant crisis while serving as the administration’s ‘border czar.’” To be sure, a debate rages over the “border czar” label itself, and the number of migrants illegally crossing the southern border has fallen as Biden tightens asylum restrictions. — Emily Ngo HAPPY MONDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
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