Dem Rep. Wants To Hear About Border Fencing, Stays Resilient Against Border Wall Idea
Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey said he’ll continue to listen to border experts about possible security measures, so long as they don’t include a concrete wall.
Gottheimer appeared on “Fox & Friends” Monday to discuss his plans for added border security, but said he didn’t deem the wall to be part of his “tough borders” strategy.
“I’m hoping, in the end, we actually find a path forward where we can have tough borders, which I believe in, but do it the way that I think is the way that I’ve heard from the experts, which is you really need several approaches to this,” he said.
“Everything from sensors to evidence-based fencing — there’s a lot of approaches here and the question is, what’s that look like and how do we keep the government open?”
Co-host Steve Doocy pressed Gottheimer about deferring to experts and asked why he’d disregard border specialists who claim the wall works.
“When you were on with us last time you, Josh, you were talking about how you want to hear from experts and we just had an expert on. Tom Homan says walls work. So is that part of your tough barrier?” Doocy asked.
“What I heard and I’ve been working on this for months now, this goes back to last Congress where many of us found a bipartisan agreement here — what I heard from experts was there’s, you know, a big concrete white thing is not actually going to make, actually solve the problem,” Gottheimer replied.
Proud to work with @USChamber to help encourage members to meet in the middle and work toward common sense, bipartisan approaches to governing. It will take both parties to get infrastructure and immigration reform done. https://t.co/XvBzY91cQy
— Rep Josh Gottheimer (@RepJoshG) February 4, 2019
“In fact, it could cause more problems but there are other solutions that might work.”
“My feeling is you’ve listened to the experts, you make sure that it’s cost effective so we spend our taxpayer dollars wisely,” he continued.
Among those to acknowledge the need for a physical structure to secure the border: law enforcement and border security agents, national security experts and over 60 Democrat elected officials. It’s time we come together to solve the problem.
— Lance Gooden (@RepLanceGooden) February 4, 2019
“And I think it takes a lot of pieces like sensors, like drones — making sure you actually have more officers at the border and then evidence-based fencing where they tell us this will actually makes sense and actually make us safer.”
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
