In a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang and its role in proliferating illegal immigration along the country’s southern border, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) addressed the fact that lawmakers need to tune out both the far left and far right of the political spectrum with regards to border security.
Tillis, elaborating on various statements from Border Patrol agents, said that there was a happy medium to securing the border between those who say “we don’t need borders, we need bridges at one end of the spectrum,” and those who say “we need to build a structure that can be viewed from outer space.”
“We have to implement policies that make it more likely that people in the communities feel safer working with law enforcement,” Tillis said. “We have to implement policies that let Homeland Security get into every jail in the United States and investigate more thoroughly the criminal enterprises that these [Transnational Criminal Organizations] represent. And we have to implement policies that are reasonable and respectful for illegally present children. That’s how you start solving this problem.”
The senator also brought attention to the increasing humanitarian crisis that has been occurring as a result of activities perpetrated by the gang, stating that by putting people, technology, and infrastructure in the area, the United States could address both a national security problem and a humanitarian element in terms of drug trafficking, human trafficking, and prostitution.