Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) are calling for stronger action on the southern border, along with former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who’s currently running for Senate.
All three politicians were adamant that there needs to be tougher enforcement on the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it’s an issue “that should be easy to solve,” but it is currently in gridlock because “we seem to talk past each other.”
The Colorado governor said it is not hard to solve immigration and that there aren’t a lot of disagreements between Democrats and Republicans, but “they both have trouble agreeing.”
“To solve immigration, we need to have real border security and lock down the border,” Polis said while speaking during the “Overcoming Political Polarization” event at American University (AU) on Thursday, where the three men discussed ways to diminish political polarization in the country.
“And then we need to expedite all this stuff that takes years and the processes around it.”
Polis mentioned Congress’s inability to pass bipartisan immigration legislation, noting that this made it necessary for states to deal with the burden.
“So obviously we have to deal with the issue of the states, which, I have to say, it’s very frustrating, because we don’t control our own borders,” Polis said. “We don’t know who’s in our states. And that’s not what states are set up to do.”
Earlier this month, the Senate failed to pass a long-sought bipartisan border security package that took months to negotiate.
Cox echoed a similar sentiment, expressing his frustration over an issue that he believes the majority of lawmakers on Capitol Hill agree on.
“Almost all Republicans and almost all Democrats actually agree on this one,” Cox said. “Democrats believe we should secure the border. Republicans agree that we need to fix legal immigration, and vice versa, obviously.”
Hogan, who recently announced his bid for the Maryland Senate seat after stepping down from his chairmanship with No Labels, called for enforcement on the southern border and repairing the immigration system.
“We’ve gotta secure the border,” said Hogan, who is a fellow at AU’s Sine Institute of Policy & Politics. “And we gotta fix the broken immigration system. They are not that hard to do.”