By Glynn Cosker
Managing Editor, In Homeland Security
Forget about all the talk in recent months about building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, Republican Party presidential hopeful Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker spoke in an NBC interview Sunday of a possible wall at the U.S. border with Canada.
In a follow-up to some questions regarding the influx of undocumented aliens crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, Walker was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he wanted to also build a wall on the country’s northern border. Walker stated that some New Hampshire residents had asked his campaign about the subject of an American-Canadian wall in on the northern border of their state.
“They raised some very legitimate concerns, including some law enforcement folks that brought that up to me at one of our town hall meetings about a week and a half ago. So that is a legitimate issue for us to look at,” said Walker. The U.S.-Canada border is the world’s longest international border at 5,525 miles long (including the stretch that separates Alaska from Canada). The U.S. border with Mexico is estimated at 1,933 miles, according to the U.S. Geological survey.
Hey @ScottWalker, lets don’t build a wall at the Canadian border. It’s hard enough for me to get into Canada already.
— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) August 30, 2015
However, Walker would not rest on wall-construction alone at either of the nation’s borders) as he is emphasizing a stricter upholding of the current immigration laws. “It starts with securing the homeland,” stated Walker. “It wasn’t just about building a wall and securing our borders, it was also about making sure our intelligence community has the ability for counterterrorism and the ability to go after the infrastructure they need to protect us.” Cutting out illegal immigration from Mexico has been a strong campaign rallying cry for Republican Party frontrunner Donald Trump, who refers to Mexican immigrants as criminals. Until now though, the idea of building a wall anywhere along the border with our neighbors to the north was greeted with ridicule.and raised eyebrows.
Scott Walker would build wall along US-Canadian border, probs to stop you from fleeing if he wins http://t.co/jkGOWYch8B — Elizabeth Bruenig (@ebruenig) August 30, 2015
With two Islamist attacks within the last year in Canada, Walker championing stronger immigration control between the U.S. and Canada is a salient point as we approach the 2016 presidential election – but building a wall is not the answer. In fact, his comments on NBC will likely go down as a major campaign faux pas – of which Trump has had about 20 so far.
Ultimately, Walker stood strong on his overall approach to border control telling “Meet the Press” on Sunday: “Whether it’s talking about the 14th Amendment or anything else, until we secure the border and enforce the laws, we shouldn’t be talking about any other issue out there.”
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