Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that National Guard troops on the U.S-Mexico border are not enough to achieve border security.
“[It] makes some sense to send soldiers to the border, but you’re not going to secure a border just by adding National Guard troops. You got to go to the root cause of this,” the South Carolina Republican said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Graham also said that “building a wall alone won’t do anything.” The wall has been one of President Trump’s longest running promises.
Last week, Trump announced he was ordering between 2,000 and 4,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico borer to help immigration officials with illegal border crossings until Trump’s signature border wall is built.
But, Graham said it is more important to address the reasons why so many foreigners want to come to the United States.
He explained: “We have two borders, one with Canada, one with Mexico. I’ve never met an illegal Canadian. I went to New Hampshire to look for them and couldn’t find one when I was running for president.”
“If you don’t have comprehensive immigration reform so it’s easier for American companies to hire, you have more labor available to American companies, you will never fix this problem,” Graham continued.
Graham has been one of the more vocal Republican lawmakers working on a bipartisan immigration deal, especially a fix for people covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. However, Congress has yet to pass a legislative solution for Trump to sign.
