GOFFSTOWN, N.H. – On Thursday, New Hampshire Senate President and Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Chuck Morse gathered New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College with three sheriffs from across New Hampshire to discuss their recent trip to Texas, specifically the U.S./Mexico border.
Morse made the trip at the invitation of Texas Governor Greg Abbott with Rockingham County Sheriff Charles Massahos, Sullivan County Sheriff John Simonds and Belknap County Sheriff Bill Wright.
The quartet praised Abbott and local officials for his efforts by the Texas state government to address border security, which they felt is imperiled by a lack of federal support and enforcement by the Mexican government.
In particular, Morse voiced support for returning to asylum policies espoused under former U.S. President Donald Trump, urging asylum seekers to seek asylum in the first foreign country they enter rather than travelling across countries to seek asylum in the United States and follow established immigration protocols if they wish to live and work in the U.S.
“We need to get back to having that kind of process in this country, we need to start worrying about the people already in America,” he said. “My whole goal here is to stop what’s going on, to worry about the people that are here now and try to fix this problem.”
Morse said that under the current system, approximately 2 million undocumented migrants are in the U.S. and many may be beholden to drug cartels for their passage across the border. He added that approximately 750,000 undocumented migrants are released from immigration hearings and spread out into the United States never to be seen again by federal authorities.
Both the trio of sheriffs and Morse also supported increased spending on wall building on parts of the border, stating that they have heard from law enforcement officials in Texas that walls have helped funnel undocumented migrant routes into more manageable patterns, facilitating immigration patrol resource needs.
“The big message is the wall works,” said Massahos.
Morse and the sheriffs’ primary concern regarding undocumented immigration stemmed from the activities of the drug cartels, who illicitly import drugs across the border, which then fan out across the U.S.
The sheriffs could not specify what percentage of the illegal drugs currently in New Hampshire come from U.S./Mexico border crossings, stating that New Hampshire’s drugs largely travel across the Massachusetts border from hubs in the Northeast such as New York City, which may see importation from Mexico and other international sources such as China.
Morse also criticized U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) for her recent trip to the U.S./Mexico border, stating that she was not sincere in her approach to border security.
“You’ve got to make sure that people believe you. You can’t open the border a year and six months ago, and then go down there during an election and say ‘I want to build this wall,’ said Morse. “We saw the wall stopped a long time ago and getting rusty while she was waiting to make a decision to change her mind.”
