Presidential candidate and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker acknowledged that there is a problem at the southern border during a campaign event in Iowa on Tuesday afternoon.
“We do have a problem at the southern border,” Booker began, according to The Hill. “Democrats should not deny that we [do]. Nations should have borders, borders should be respected.”
Sen. Cory Booker: “We do have a problem at the southern border. Democrats should not deny that.” https://t.co/zdW4yY3LwN pic.twitter.com/f729DRnBKb
— The Hill (@thehill) April 16, 2019
“And so, my beef with this president is that number one, his technologies don’t work. I’ve gone down to the border, I’ve hung out with [Customs and Border Protection] and other border patrol folks and they’re like, ‘There’s no way we need a wall coast-to-coast,’” he added. “We have a time now where you can use sensors and technologies and drones and a lot more to protect the border, which is what we should do.”
Booker, like many of his presidential opponents, have taken shots at the president for both his rhetoric about the border situation and his ideas to fix it.
Booker’s admission comes as President Donald Trump is exploring alternative options to address the problems at the border. Trump has recently floated the idea of releasing detained immigrants who entered the country illegally into sanctuary cities. Previous reporting by The Daily Caller’s White House correspondent Amber Athey suggested that the president has the ability to implement the policy as he sees fit, but could run into problems when it comes to funding the transportation required for such a decision.
By Mike Brest