Rep. Juan Ciscomani says border security and tackling individual issues are path forward

PHOENIX – The complex issues with border security and immigration will be a focal point for many of the candidates in this year’s election. U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani believes there is a path to creating a fair system.

Ciscomani, a Republican, represents Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, an area that covers parts of the state’s southeastern Arizona-Mexico border. The congressman has been critical of President Joe Biden and his administration’s handling of the border but believes there is a way to secure the border and promote a fair immigration system.

“It starts with securing the border … when we have no control of who is coming in, that endangers the whole system, not just a national security aspect of what happens at the border, but it actually throws people to the very back of the line and their wait time that they have been in the process of already gets doubled,” Ciscomani told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on Wednesday.

The representative is the first Mexican-born naturalized American to represent Arizona in Congress and uses his own experience to showcase the length it takes for immigrants to become a U.S. citizen. When he was 11, his family moved to the U.S., beginning a thirteen year process to becoming a citizen, which they did in 2006.

Ciscomani said that the people who are waiting to become citizens are the ones hurt by the lack of control of people coming into the country and overwhelming stress on the system.

Sweeping comprehensive immigration reform is challenging, he admits, but said the right course of action should be tackling individual issues over broad reforms.

“This whole notion of either get a huge packet through or nothing at all has been the approach of Washington and guess what, nothing has happened,” Ciscomani said.

By tackling security and visa processes individually, Ciscomani believes more progress will made that can lead to a broader package of reform.

Progress has also stalled due to Democrats and Republicans using the border as a political football, Ciscomani said.

In May, a bipartisan border security bill failed to pass in the Senate after just one Republican voted to pass it. The bill contained security elements that the GOP promoted but ultimately failed due to former President Donald Trump calling on Republicans to stall the bill to avoid giving Biden a success heading into the election season, according to the New York Times.

Ciscomani sponsored a bill in April that would implement penalties for people accused of aiding people crossing the border but it failed to pass the U.S. House of Represenatives.

Ciscomani running again in November

In 2022, Ciscomani defeated Democrat Kirsten Engel in the general election and will face her again this November.

The congressman defeated Kathleen Winn by 18,396 votes in the Arizona primary in July. Engel ran unopposed.

It could be a closer race than the primary was for Ciscomani, who defeated by Engel with less than 6,000 votes in 2022.

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