“And we have to work together to secure the continent in order to keep dangerous people and dangerous things out and strengthen perimeter security on a continental basis.”

The image and the costs of a Berlin-like wall or a Great Wall of China is something that the American people have not accepted to date.

In today’s digital online world, those who don’t share information will be isolated and left behind. We need the data of other countries to connect the dots.

The air passenger screening system Mexico has in place involves these checks against US national security and criminal data bases.

Twenty-nine US states depend on Mexico as their primary export market.

We must recognize that this massive economic bloc that’s emerging in North America cannot be accomplished unilaterally. It must be accomplished in partnership with Mexico and Canada.

Four out of five border-crossers detained in South Texas are Guatemalan, Honduran or Salvadoran. They are driven by violence and poverty in their home countries and the desire for family reunification.

This is true despite the significant poverty, and the class and geographic inequality that have deep historical roots.

Homeland security is inherently transnational today. There’s hardly anything adverse that happens in our homeland that doesn’t have a cause or effect that’s generated abroad. Increasingly.

Mexico now has the 13th largest economy in the world.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts it will have a larger economy than Germany by 2042.

The law change during the Bush administration gave the Department of Health and Human Services a central role in relocating Central American minors in the United States.

And they seek out Border Patrol agents or Customs and Border Protection officials to surrender to them and request political asylum.

We should be wary, particularly with our closest friends and allies, of breaking down the trust and confidence that lie at the foundation of relationships.

To the extent that President Trump means strengthened border security, I am fully in favor of the idea that the rule of the law, secure borders and public safety should prevail. Drugs should not enter illegally.

That’s the way in which they get entry into a system that will eventually release them into the country.

The National Targeting Center in Virginia run by Customs and Border Protection checks the background of every traveler who seeks to enter the country.

Our security in a global world must be looked at on a continental basis.