Dr. Phil McGraw expressed frustration with the debate around controlling immigration, arguing people are afraid to voice support for border security due to labeling.
While most Americans favor border control, he said the issue is conflated with anti-immigration views.
Fox News’ Jesse Watters said, “The border thing seems so obvious to vast majorities of the American public.”
“Why is it such a deadly problem still?’ he asked McGraw.
McGraw replied, “Well, I think people are afraid to take a position this, because, if they take a position and say we should control the border, then they’re labeled as anti-immigration, they’re labeled as haters for these different countries that people are coming from.”
McGraw stated he is pro-immigration given the U.S. needs immigrants due to its low birth rate, but it is important to know who is entering the country and filter out potential threats.
“But that’s missing the point, isn’t it? Because we’re not talking about immigration. We’re talking about illegal immigration. I’m very pro-immigration,” he explained.
He added, “We need immigrants in this country.”
McGraw said, “We got a 1.6 birth rate. We need 2.1 to sustain our infrastructure here. I welcome immigrants into this country, but we need to know who they are. We need to know who it is that’s coming into our country. We need to be able to sort through these people. And those that are enemies of the United States that are coming into the country, those that are on the terror watch list coming into the country, those people certainly need to be filtered and stopped.
“And when you come into the United States illegally, that’s a felony,”
He asserted entering the U.S. illegally is a felony and the government needs to be able to screen immigrants to identify enemies and those on terror watchlists seeking to enter through illegal means.
