The Republican senator slated to be the next chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee questioned why Democrats allowed the U.S. borders to remain unsecured for so long.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson told "Fox & Friends" he took the oversight and investigation responsibilities of his committee "pretty seriously," and suggested a piecemeal approach to border security and immigration reform.
"Why have we for decades not secured our border? The Democrats, by and large, are holding border security hostage for some guarantee of citizenship," Johnson said Friday. "Let's take the immigration problem step by step. First, secure the border."
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Johnson also called for ending "all the incentives for illegal immigration," as well as establishing a "functioning" guest worker program and policies that addressed highly skilled foreign workers.
"Let's have a high skills guest worker program," he said.
"It's crazy. We're educating all these young people, the brightest minds throughout the world. Then we force them to go home," he said.
Should President Barack Obama follow through on making changes to the immigration system through executive action, Johnson said it would "poison the well for good-faith efforts to try and solve these problems," adding it was also "bad policy."
"It's really bad politics. I hope he doesn't do it. Let's work together," he said. "Let's secure the border. Let's bring in these kids with all the high skills, the brightest minds."
Johnson suggested there were "plenty of areas that I think we can reach agreement on," and maintained he was interested in seeing the administration succeed on the issue.
"I want to see this administration succeed in securing our borders. I want to see this administration succeed in keeping America safe," he said.
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