Republican lawmaker: Border wall, family separations counterproductive to security
By Tal Kopan, CNN
After traveling to the hotbed of illegal immigration and drug trafficking, Republican Rep. Will Hurd is more convinced than ever that America doesn’t need a border wall.
“The $32 billion that would go into a border wall, I’m just even more convinced that it would be better spent with some of these existing programs, and we’d see a quicker decrease in drugs and illegal immigration,” Hurd said, referring to US initiatives to help Central America.
Hurd spoke with CNN after a three-day trip to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, three countries that drive most of the illegal immigration to the southern US border. In Central America, Hurd met with national security officials and community representatives.
A Texas lawmaker with the largest stretch of US-Mexico border of any congressional district, Hurd has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump’s promised border wall and the administration’s family separations at the border.
The moderate Republican’s seat is also one of the races Democrats are targeting aggressively in their hopes to flip control of the House. Hurd is facing a well-funded Democratic challenger, Gina Ortiz Jones, in a race that has already cost millions.
Trump has only doubled down on his hardline immigration policies headed into the midterms, including a border wall costing tens of billions of dollars. Though he and his base remain convinced that such aggressive policies are key to Republicans’ political success, Hurd has been a strong voice on the right for more moderate policies.
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Every part of the Trump/Sessions/Miller intentionally cruel immigration enforcement program has been a failure from the standpoint of sound law enforcement. Yet, the more they fail and the more the Federal Courts and others point out their illegal actions, the more the Trumpsters double down on everything vile. In the end, the damage will only be stopped when Trump & company are voted out of office.
PWS
08-29-18