It’s no secret to anyone - our current immigration system is broken. There are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.  This system, which affects families, workers, our economy and our national security, cannot continue to be debated as some narrow-minded choice between amnesty and mass deportation, nor can it be left to individual states to fix.

We need a Congress that is ready to roll up their sleeves and work together to help immigrants out of the shadows and create a fair and economically practical system that holds both immigrants and employers accountable. 

As your congressman I would want to provide a fair process for undocumented workers to come forward, pay taxes and penalties and earn provisional residency.

National Security

The immigration system we have today weakens America’s security. This broken system provides the profit motive for criminals and has spawned a market for human and drug trafficking.  No matter how robust our security on the border is, people will always find a way around it.

My opponent thinks the opposite.  When the Dallas Morning News asked Sam Johnson for his solutions about the Mexican drug cartels and securing the border, his answers were ignorant and wrong. His words exactly, “I say more troops and more drones. Secure the border and then we’ll talk. That must be priority number one before anything else happens.”

Ever heard of the Great Wall of China or perhaps the Berlin Wall?  History has shown this is not the answer.  You cannot just build a wall on the great land masses of this planet to stop people from visiting family, escaping violence, or seeking out a new better life.  No amount of drones or troops will change this.  I know Sam Johnson is a war veteran and for this I’m grateful, but war is not the answer for everything. You would think he’d have learned this by now with our experience in Iraq and now Afghanistan.

As your congressman, my priority will not be militarizing our borders. Rather, I will go to work with other lawmakers to reform an immigration system that allows immigrants to come with visas, not smugglers; a system that requires documentation, registration, and background security checks.  By providing a legal process in line for citizenship and specifically targeting enforcement actions against genuine threats we will do so much more for America’s security than “more troops and more drones” ever will.