Mexico may not like President Donald Trump's deportation planes, but it "allowed these people into their country in the first place," former Sheriff Mark Lamb of Arizona's Pinal County said on Newsmax Sunday.
"They came from Mexico," Lamb, who is running for the U.S. Senate, told Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend." "They crossed in from other countries. But Mexico should have stopped them on their border in the first place. These are the hard facts that we're going to have to face."
His comments came after Mexico last week refused to allow a U.S. military plane landing access.
Two Air Force C-47s headed for Guatemala flew deportees out of the U.S. Thursday night, but a third one did not take off.
A White House official said the matter was an "administrative issue and was quickly rectified."
"Fixing this immigrant immigration problem that the previous administration, Biden-Harris, just destroyed is not going to be easy, and it's not going to be optically beautiful," said Lamb.
"It's not going to be nice optics, but the job has to be done," he added. "I think President Trump and Tom Homan in the first week have done an excellent job, and if we continue at this pace, we're going to be doing what needs to be done to get this fixed."
Lamb further commented on criticism Trump and border czar Tom Homan have gotten over the administration's deportation plans, including from Pope Francis.
Homan defended his policies, saying the Vatican has a wall, and Lamb said he agrees.
"Who cares what those people have to say?" he said. "The American people have spoken, and the American people said we don't want any more of this."
Immigration was the "biggest piece" of why Trump was elected.
"Look, in Arizona, Gov. [Katie] Hobbs said she doesn't want to comply," Lamb added. "We [in law enforcement] don't really care what Gov. Hobbs has to say. She doesn't tell us what to do in law enforcement, doesn't tell the sheriffs or the police what to do. She may control the state troopers, but other than that, she has little say so in how we're going to go about helping this administration do what they need to do."
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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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