John Kennedy: Immigration reform should be comprehensive not ‘piecemeal’

Sen. John N. Kennedy said Wednesday that immigration reform needs to be comprehensive rather than addressing it based on separate issues.

“There has been a 15-year, bipartisan refusal to look this issue in the eye and address it, and the longer we wait, the worse it’s going to get. I, for one, don’t believe we can do it piecemeal,” Mr. Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, said on CNN.

Congressional leaders met with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday to discuss the issue and agreed Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — the policy protecting those brought to the U.S. illegally as children — should be the priority followed by a comprehensive immigration plan, including possible funding for a border wall.

“We’ve got about 1,900 miles of border with Mexico. About one-third of them have a wall right now, or a fence, or what someone could call a wall. The president’s proposal is to wall off another third,” Mr. Kennedy explained, referring to a plan from the Department of Homeland Security.

He said DHS outlines where a wall would be helpful and how much it’s projected to cost. Mr. Kennedy said he’d like to look into the logistics of what the wall would entail before committing financial resources to it.