Problem Solvers Caucus Co-Chairs join Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier

The following is the transcript of an interview with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Tom Suozzi, Democrat of New York, that aired on Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier" on July 17, 2025.

BRET BAIER: We’re back on Capitol Hill for the Common Ground segment tonight and a bipartisan effort to address, among other things, immigration. Joining us tonight: the House Problem Solvers Caucus Co-Chairs, Pennsylvania Republican Brian Fitzpatrick and New York Democrat Tom Suozzi. Thank you both for being here.

It is a huge issue. You guys are working on things, but can something really be accomplished—even around the edges—on the issue of immigration?

REP. SUOZZI (D-NY): Well, I think it has to be done. And you know, it’s been going on for 30–40 years in our country that we’ve had this problem, and we have to give the administration credit—the president credit—for the fact that they have done a great job securing the border, but we need to pass laws to make sure that will last beyond any administration in the future.

We need to fix the broken asylum system, and we need to lean into some of the President’s comments, where he says that farm workers and hospitality workers and other essential workers that are so important to our economy, that have been here for more than 10 years, that have otherwise been following the rules and going to work six days a week and going to church on Sunday—let’s figure out a way to legalize them so they can continue to work in the United States.

BRET BAIER: So you know, a lot of your fellow Democrats are really going after I.C.E. and the visuals of some of these raids and what they’re doing. Do you feel they’re doing the wrong thing?

REP. SUOZZI: Well, I think they’re doing some things that are good, and I think they’re doing some things that are bad. And any administration that tries to do a lot of enforcement—whether it was Obama or Biden when they did it—things will always go wrong.

BRET BAIER: The President—his people say we did the border. There were zero released for two months in a row, and those numbers are way, way down as far as encounters. So how do you see it?

REP. FITZPATRICK (R-PA): Yeah, well, that just goes to show you that enforcement is a huge, huge part of this equation. Yes, we need laws to strengthen the border control apparatus. Yes, we need funding. But enforcement is a big part of it, right? You can pass all the laws all day you want, but if prosecutors aren’t going to prosecute them, then it’s all for naught.

BRET BAIER: What does that piece of legislation look like?

REP. FITZPATRICK: So Tom and I talk about this a lot. We’re both very passionate about it. If you look at Ellis Island, right, you always talk about having a modern-day Ellis Island perspective of it. That’s a tremendous source of American immigration pride. But it was done the right way—there were health screeners, there were financial checks, you had to have sponsors, there were employment requirements. It was a sensible solution to deal with immigration that was very different—looks very different—in that era.

REP. SUOZZI: And you know, my father was born in Italy. So when I think of America, and I think of the American dream, I think of the immigration story, and it kills me that immigration has become such a negative. We have to use some common sense. So let’s figure out a way how people can continue to work, and they can pay their taxes, and they can stop looking over their shoulder that they’re going to be deported—if you’ve been following the rules otherwise, not committing any crime. But everybody—everybody—should agree that if you’re a violent criminal, you got to be deported out of the country.

BRET BAIER: Not everybody does.

REP. SUOZZI: Well, that’s not reasonable. Everybody should agree with that. And so let’s do that. But again, let’s worry about these families that have been here a long time. Let’s figure out a way that—not to get citizenship—but to have legal status here in the United States of America. 

BRET BAIER: Every time we talk about trying to get something done, we always seem to be one election away from solving the big issues. We really do, because votes are around how you vote for the election—one way or the other. Both of you voted against the big, beautiful bill, largely for Medicaid concerns. The New York Post had it this way: “New York Democrat REP. SUOZZI voted against Trump’s big, beautiful bill, but admits he agrees with 75% of it.” Now Ronald Reagan used to say, hey, you get 75–80%, you’re pretty close. 

REP. SUOZZI: Well, listen, there were good things. I like the idea of giving tax breaks to middle-income and people aspiring to the middle class—give them tax breaks. I like that idea. I like the idea of giving money to help secure the border. But I did not think it was a good idea to give some tax breaks to some of the wealthiest people in the country who don’t need it right now. Cutting Medicaid and SNAP for some of the neediest Americans in our country, holding food assistance—and all at the same time blowing the biggest deficit in the history of the country.

BRET BAIER: This rescissions package barely gets through the House, just barely the Senate, just barely. They have to call in Vice President Vance. What does that say about Washington’s ability to cut spending? It’s really pretty poor.

REP. FITZPATRICK: It is. And that’s why I think we need a debt and deficit commission—much like Simpson-Bowles—modeled similar to the 9/11 Commission. You don’t have any currently serving elected officials. Bring in subject matter experts in a one-D to one-R ratio, where everything is on the table—revenues and expenses. That’s the way families deal with their budgets.

REP. SUOZZI: Now is the time for us to start working together. You know, if you do the rescission package, the BBB—the big, beautiful bill—they’re all kind of one-party bills: my way or the highway. Let’s work together.

BRET BAIER: I mean, again, you were 75%.

REP. SUOZZI: I know, but the things that were there were just too dramatically wrong. I mean, it was just—it’s going to hurt a lot of people in my district.

BRET BAIER: Elections have consequences, right? So put the bills together. But you guys are working—

REP. SUOZZI: Let’s work together. I mean, we want to meet with the President, we want to work with the President to try and get things done. And the reality is: people are dying for people to work together. They want us to work together.

BRET BAIER: Trust me, I do Common Ground. People pay attention. There’s a large part of your party, though, that seems like it’s going the other way—that’s going into the fight mode in Washington. The Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was in town meeting with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and some of your colleagues. You wrote in an opinion piece, “For Democrats, Mamdani is a wake-up call and a bad example.” You didn’t go to that meeting?

REP. SUOZZI: No.

BRET BAIER: No. And you think he’s a bad example?

REP. SUOZZI: Well, the bottom line is: I’m a democratic capitalist. I’m not a democratic socialist. But we could learn a lesson from Mamdani and from Trump, who both appeal to people based upon affordability and economic issues. And we as Democrats, on my side, need to lean in more to affordability, immigration, taxes, crime, health care. That’s what the American people care about. If you poll the American people, that’s what they say.

BRET BAIER: But do you see your party going that way?

REP. SUOZZI: Well, I am going that way. I’m trying to bring others. And there are others that believe that same thing.

BRET BAIER: Listen, you guys are great examples of common ground. Thank you for coming on the Common Ground segment.

We do have common ground in congratulating you and our own Jackie Heinrich for your engagement, which had some amazing pictures—that seemed like it was made for television.

REP. FITZPATRICK: It was in Provence, in France. It was a place she always wanted to go to.

BRET BAIER: Congratulations.

REP. FITZPATRICK: Thank you so much.

BRET BAIER: Way to end this segment. Thanks a lot, Congressmen.