Padilla on if Greater Border Security Is Good: ‘How You Do It Also Matters’

During an interview with CNN aired on Tuesday’s “The Story Is,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) responded to a question on whether the sharp decline in illegal border crossings should be celebrated by stating that “How you do it also matters.”

Padilla said, “[W]e’ve been talking about immigration, the way they’ve chosen to try to go about enforcing is cruel, a violation of the law.”

Host Elex Michaelson then cut in to ask, “But some may say they shut down the border, though, and that illegal border crossings have gone way down. Is that something to celebrate?”

Padilla responded, “How you do it also matters, Elex. How you do it also matters. And when it comes to something as complex as immigration, right? I’m the first one to say our immigration system and laws need to be modernized. They are outdated. Everybody wants a safe, secure, orderly, and humane border, number one. Number two, we should revisit — not everybody who wants to come to the United States should automatically be able to come, but…the work visa, the student visa, the tourist visa, all these mechanisms for coming need to be updated. But let’s also not forget the millions of people, at this point, that have been in the United States for years and years, in many cases, decades, that don’t have criminal convictions, don’t have violent felonies on their record, otherwise, law-abiding, paying taxes, raising families, contributing to the vibrancy of our economy. They deserve better than to continue to live in the shadows. They need a step towards legalization and eventual path to potential citizenship.”

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