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An Arizona sheriff told House lawmakers Wednesday a proposal for a wall on the southern border has a "racist component" to it unless a wall is built on the United States' border with Canada as well.
Testifying before the House Committee on Homeland Security on the border crisis, Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway explained how immigrants have a positive economic effect during an inquiry from Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
"They actually reduce price inflation. You see help wanted signs all over the United States. If you add productivity to the economy, it makes the economy more productive," Hathaway said.
Hathaway then addressed calls for a wall on the southern border with Mexico.
BIDEN-HARRIS BORDER CRISIS: VICTIMS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIME TESTIFY IN HOUSE HEARING
"I hate to use the ‘R’ word, but it's the 800-pound gorilla in the room," he said. "There's a xenophobic aspect to this. There was never a proposal to build a wall on the northern border, on the Canadian border. There was never any intent to aggressively enforce Title 42 on the Canadian border."
Title 42 is a Trump-era policy established during the COVID-19 pandemic that allowed U.S. officials to turn away migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border because of health concerns.
"So, you know there is this kind of racist component to it that we kind of all ignore, but it’s there smoldering in the background," Hathaway said.
His remarks came as he sat next to the mother of Rachel Morin, who was allegedly killed last year in Maryland by an illegal immigrant from El Salvador.
"An illegal immigrant that was a gotaway from El Salvador had waited for her on the trail. I was told that they grabbed her, dragged her through the woods, raped her, strangled her, murdered her," Patty Morin told lawmakers.
"We were told that her body was blanketed in bruises. And I can tell you from looking at her when I went to the funeral home that it was probably the most graphic thing that I've ever seen."
The Biden administration has come under fire from Republicans over its border policies that have allowed record numbers of illegal migrants to enter the U.S.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., scalded Hathaway, questioning him about his knowledge of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
"And you're a sheriff?" Gimenez asked. "That's one of the most violent gangs that's coming out of Venezuela. That's coming through your town."
The congressman, an immigrant from Cuba, also took issue with Hathaway's assertion that supporting a border wall is racist.
"I believe that immigration should be legal immigration. I disagree with illegal immigration. Am I a racist?" Gimenez asked before the sheriff doubled down on his border wall argument.
