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Border security is a complex issue and will remain a top priority during the 2007 legislative year. As Congress works to fix this problem, I will continue to push for strong measures that beef up security at our borders.

Clearly, border security has been the top domestic issue of the year, and rightly so. Securing our borders is an essential aspect of our national security.

Border security is a safety issue.

The issues surrounding illegal immigration are wide-ranging and complex, but there is no question about the need to secure our borders.

Fences would be a hindrance to terrorists should they decide to come across a land border between the U.S. and Mexico and to California.

But again, to dealing with border security, is an issue that - it's like having a fire in the back of your house that you need to put out first before you talk about who, who you're going to let in the front door.

There's places where a secure fence will work, and that strategic type fencing will work. But the idea that people can easily just stand up and say 'let's just build a fence' and be done with it and wipe our hands, and it's going to secure the border, that's not reality.

The fact of the matter is, is that we need our borders secured. Certainly, we realize that there's going to have to be some kind of immigration reform, but I don't believe any of that's going to move forward until our border is secured.

The real problem is clean up the bureaucracy that people have to deal with to become a citizen the right way. And we must truly secure the border. We can't leave it porous.

But my view is that you need a system at the border. You need some fencing but you need technology. You need boots on the ground. And then you need to have interior enforcement of our nation's immigration laws inside the country. And that means dealing with the employers who still consistently hire illegal labor.