Rep. Ruben Gallego: ‘No sane politician’ can think immigration system isn’t broken

PHOENIX – If anybody isn’t convinced that border security is a crucial issue for Arizonans and the politicians chasing their votes, just look at what took place Thursday.

At the same time Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was touring the Arizona-Mexico border, Senate hopeful and Congressman Ruben Gallego was stressing the importance of immigration reform during an interview from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“There’s no sane politician that could look at what has happened in the last four years when it comes to the asylum seekers abusing the system and say that the system is not broken,” Gallego told KTAR News 92.3 FM. “It is broken, it needs to get fixed, and especially for our border towns. They’re the ones that take it directly on the chin, and we need to be supporting them.”

Ruben Gallego on border: More funding needed

Gallego acknowledged that he isn’t always on the same page as his Democratic colleagues when it comes to border policy.

“A lot of them aren’t from Arizona,” he said. “And, so, I tell them, you just don’t understand the border. You don’t understand what we’re seeing at the border.”

Gallego said Arizona voters of all political stripes regard the border as a problem that needs to be addressed.

“Look, the border has changed,” he said. “And I think it’s important for our elected officials to understand when things change, you need to add more funds, [and] then we add more funds.”

What will Ruben Gallego say during DNC speech?

Gallego, who faces Republican Kari Lake in a race that could decide which party controls the Senate, will speak during Thursday’s final session of the DNC, although the border won’t be the subject.

Instead, he said he’ll be discussing his personal experience after serving as a U.S. Marine and the need to support veterans.

“I still have PTSD; I talk about it. I encourage people to get treatment on it,” he said. “I’m going to talk about the failures that happened when I got back, how I couldn’t get treatment for PTSD, I couldn’t get a VA disability, and then the successes we’ve seen.”

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