WASHINGTON – In an appearance on CNN New Day Thursday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, discussed Wednesday’s hearing with Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on how to better secure the Southwest border. Excerpts from the interview are below, and the full segment can be viewed here.
“There is a great deal of consensus that our border is not secure. My ranking member, Senator Claire McCaskill, in the hearing before that said she is not aware of any senator that isn’t committed to securing the border. So, good. There’s our starting point. That’s our area of agreement. Now we have to start filling in the details.”
“I’ve always thought the wall was a metaphor for securing the border. I think it’s just been incredibly important that this president – finally, we have an administration that has committed themselves to securing the border in whatever shape and form that takes. And yes, we do need better barriers. We need better fencing. We’ve had border patrol deputies and chiefs tell us fencing works, we need more of it. “
“Secretary Kelly is undergoing the study right now, and we’ll do this in a prioritized way. Step by step, building barriers where we need to and introducing technology, building our manpower force, fixing personnel problems so we can actually hire the people to keep our border secure.”
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