Amid nationwide ICE crackdown efforts, Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN) responded to differing views on border security. Ogles joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss.
00:00And Congressman, to end the conversation here, this was a bipartisan trip.
00:05So in that spirit, do you think there's a lot of room or any room that you can work with Democrats when it comes to border security, when it comes to immigration?
00:14Look, if someone gets it and they want to secure the border and they want to create, you know, go back to law and order and making sure that people are here or here legally, I'm happy to have that conversation.
00:26But, you know, I'm a no amnesty kind of guy.
00:29You came here illegally.
00:31Look, if I travel to the United Arab Emirates and I sneak in, they're not going to pat me on the head and say, oh, you're nice.
00:37We're going to let you become a citizen.
00:39No, they're going to deport me.
00:40If I get a work one year work visa and overstay that visa, they're going to deport me.
00:45If I'm there on a work visa and I commit a crime, they're going to put you in jail.
00:48I mean, this is this is a common sense approach.
00:51And that's the way the rest of the world does it.
00:52And this idea that we have to do it differently because we're the United States of America.
00:57I would argue that we should do it our way, which is the law and order way that says if you want to come to this country, it's a privilege, not a right.
01:06It's a privilege to come here.
01:08We get to decide who comes in.
01:10We get to decide who has to leave.
01:12End of end of the story.
01:13We are a country that is was built on legal immigration, not illegal immigration.
01:20We have a whole cadre of folks that served in the great war, you know, that greatest generation who came here legally because they wanted to be a part of something bigger and they wanted to do it the right way.
01:32We have a whole host of folks who have come here illegally and they want to come here to leech off the system.
01:38And I, for one, am not going to stand for it.
01:40Just to that point, I mean, critics say that the way the United States is doing it now by deporting people to El Salvador, some of those people aren't even from El Salvador.
01:51They take issue with that.
01:52They there's a legal issue there.
01:55I mean, do you take issue with that, that these people aren't from El Salvador and they're being sent to prison there for an undetermined amount of time?
02:02Well, keep in mind, the folks that are being deported are guilty of multiple heinous crimes.
02:09And are all of them, though, are all of do we know that all of them are guilty of committing heinous crimes?
02:15I mean, some of them, there's no evidence that they are.
02:18The crime could be just that they came to this country illegally.
02:22What I can tell you is from my visit, the people that are in Seacott prison are all guilty of murderers or other heinous crimes, rapes and drug trafficking and smoke, human smuggling, etc.
02:33And so if you're guilty of those crimes and you get sent to Seacott, it's because of a choice you made.
02:38But even the case, you know, there's recently a high profile case that came through Nashville and the guy was smuggling individuals through Nashville.
02:46So, again, if you're a human smuggler, you know, that's a crime.
02:51People get victimized on the routes of human smuggling.
02:55And so, again, you know, if you want to be a criminal and you want to smuggle people into this country, if you're going to be an MS-13 member and you're going to kill people, if you're going to drug traffic, just know that at the end of that story, the light at the end of the tunnel is Seacott prison.
03:11Congressman, I appreciate your time today.
03:13And immigration is going to continue to be a top issue here.
03:17And I know that I hope rather that you and I can have many conversations on it and developments going forward.
03:24Congressman Andy Ogles, thank you so much for joining me.
