Rep. Randy Fine told Newsmax on Saturday that the Trump administration's move to halt asylum and immigration benefit applications for applicants from high-risk countries is necessary because vetting in some places "is a lie."
The Florida Republican, speaking with Newsmax's "The Count," added that some countries lack the systems needed to reliably screen applicants.
"They don't have databases," he said, adding that even with records, "you can't know what's in someone's heart and you can't know what's in someone's head."
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this week that President Donald Trump's administration is moving to expand the number of countries covered by its travel ban from the current 19 to include more than 30 countries.
Fine said the administration's immigration crackdown should extend beyond illegal border crossings to legal pathways as well.
"In the same way that President Trump has stopped illegal immigration into this country, now we need to stop undesirable legal immigration into the country," he said.
Fine added said removals should not be limited to those who entered illegally.
"Now we've got to be sending home legal immigrants who came here for the wrong reasons," he said.
Fine tied his position to broader concerns about public benefits and assimilation, saying welfare policy can create dependency and resentment.
"One of the big lies about welfare is that it is compassionate when you give someone something they didn't earn," he said. "You actually corrode their soul and you create a greater sense of entitlement."
He said importing large numbers of migrants from troubled societies carries long-term consequences for the United States.
"If you import the third world, you become the third world," Fine said, adding, "This isn't about racism, it is about culture."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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