America needs a border wall for both public safety and national security, says Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Tom Homan.
Homan told Fox’s Mornings with Maria that he “absolutely” agrees with President Trump on requiring a border wall on any deal related to DACA and that a wall will be a potent tool in immigration management.
“Every place we’ve built a wall or barrier its worked, we’ve proven that. So, why would we not want to invest in a wall?” the ICE director said Thursday.
While addressing Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, who has railed against funding a wall to secure the border, Director Holman pointed out that such a measure once had bi-partisan support and that they need to “look at the facts.”
“A few years ago there was bi-partisan support for the wall, they actually funded a wall or parts of a barrier,” Homan said.
“Look, all they got to do is look at the facts. Every place they’ve built it, whether it be San Diego, Yuma Arizona, El Paso Texas – where ever they have built a barrier the illegal crossings decreased significantly,” he added. “So as far as costs, what costs do you want to put on public safety and national security? It has proven it works. I think this country needs it. I think it’s going to help protect this country.”
Border patrol agents have pointed to the border fence along the Yuma, Arizona border as the most important part of the improved immigration enforcement in that county. Since the fence was erected, the number of people detained while crossing the border fell by 96 percent.
Ironically, the fence along the Yuma border was constructed after the passage of the 2006 Secure Fence Act which had the support of Senators Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama.
ICE’s acting director made it clear that he believes the underlying issues and policies surrounding illegal immigration must be addressed before DACA is considered.
“If there is going to be a negotiation on DACA than let’s address the underlying problems on illegal immigration. Let’s talk about diversity of visas. Let’s talk about some of these court rulings that require ICE to release people in a certain amount of time only to only be lost in the community and never show up in court. Let’s oppose some of these loopholes,” Homan blustered.
President Trump said on Wednesday that any bill giving amnesty to thousands of immigrants should include funding for a border wall.
“It’s got to include the wall. … Any solution has to include the wall because without the wall it doesn’t work … we have to have the wall for security purposes,” the president said at a joint White House conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
Vice President Pence backed up Trump’s hard stance on the wall when he said in an interview with Martha MacCallum Wednesday night that, “I think the president’s been very clear. There’s no deal on DACA without a wall.”
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