It's more complex than just slapping up a wall. We have got to take a look at all the complexities in terms of eliminating the incentives for illegal immigration.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
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.
Illegal immigration presents a huge problem. That is why I decided to spend a week along the southern border to see firsthand how bad the problem is and, more importantly, what Congress can do to fix it.
It's just so unfortunate that, as we get adjusted to this global economy, that the U.S. is even thinking about building walls.
You reduce illegal immigration by making it harder to get jobs here, or easier to get jobs south of the border. This idea that we can't pass an immigration law until we hit some imaginary security target is just a way to derail reform.
I know there's a lot of discussion about building a 2000-mile wall. I think we need to complete the Secure Fencing Act, but we need greater technology and aviation aspects down on the Southwest border so we can see the threat from the sky. Until you can see it, you don't know where it's coming from and how to correctly stop it.
I believe we need to focus first and foremost - as Donald Trump has done with such force and such passion - on border integrity and building the wall.
As far as a wall is concerned, the experts actually say that in some places a wall is necessary, in other places a double wall is necessary, and in other places that a wall wouldn't help. So I'm for whatever it takes to secure our border with Mexico. We've got to do it. I'm for then enforcing our laws.
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.
I think there's kind of a simplistic, kind of knee-jerk response that all you have to do is build a 2,000-mile wall, and problem solved.