El Paso, Texas, Mayor Dee Margo (R) said in an interview that aired Monday on “Rising” that a physical barrier along the U.S. southern border is not the “be-all end-all for border security.”
“Physically, you cannot do a physical barrier from El Paso, Texas to Brownsville, Texas,” Margo told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton last week.
“The geography will not allow it, and most of Texas is private land,” he continued. “So it can’t be done anyway in most cases, or you’ll have to do eminent domain, which is litigation in multiple years.”
“But there is a place for physical barriers, according to the CPB,” he said, referring to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“They need more manpower. They’ve told me they need 2,000 more agents. There’s also a place for technology.”
“My position is a physical barrier is not the be-all end-all for border security. To me, it begins with the laws that we have passed that need to be revamped and changed and then dealing with immigration law to begin with, and then improving legal immigration,” he said.
Margo’s comments appear to be a break with President Trump, who declared a state of emergency at the border in February as a means of securing funding for his long-promised border wall.
The El Paso mayor has clashed with the president before on the issue of border security.
Trump said in his State of the Union address in February that El Paso is safer due to a border wall.
However, Margo responded by saying “the fence” along the border “serves a useful purpose,” but that “it’s not the total panacea.”
— Julia Manchester
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