Rep. Pete King: 'Not That Easy' to Fix Immigration

Rep. Pete King said Wednesday that he does not agree with Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen's comments that fixing the issues of illegal immigration is "easy," as lawmakers in the House have to rely on GOP votes to push legislation through.

"There are a lot of competing interests," the New York Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." 

"You have many Democrats lined up against us. On the Republican side, there are questions of how to address DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] how much funding should be put in for the border wall, how are sanctuary cities going to be addressed. It is not that easy."

Nielsen said during an interview on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" that she shares President Donald Trump's frustration on immigration and about Congress' inability to decide on a solution.

She added that there is an "easy formula" for achieving border security, calling for closing loopholes, building a border wall, allowing necessary funding and personnel for immigration authorities, and ending the catch and release policy.

"There is no reason why we can't get it done, but we have to realize in the House we have to rely almost exclusively on Republican votes to get it done," said King.

"The Senate has different issues. They have the issue with the filibuster. In the House, it's important we get everyone in the room and try to resolve honest differences about what emphasis there should be, how it should be done."

All the same, there is "no reason" why members of the House shouldn't be able to come to a resolution on immigration.

King said he and Rep. Daniel Donovan, a fellow New York Republican, have an issue when it comes to sanctuary city legislation, even if he is against the idea in principle.

"We don't want money cut off to the police in New York City if New York City is a sanctuary city," said King. "Other money should be cut. Otherwise you make a bad situation worse by putting constituents at risk by taking money away from the police. We think we are resolving that."

Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders commented that Trump is still willing to work on DACA.

"Actually, the president's offer on DACA was much more generous than President [Barack] Obama's, and Democrats seemed to move somewhat on the border wall," said King. "I have no doubt that if everyone is in the room and dealing honestly it can be done."

King also discussed the release of documents from the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and other campaign officials and Russians and commented that there was "no evidence at all that anything of substance was discussed."

"They brought up the adoption issue," he said. "That was it. The meeting was over...to me this is the Democrats trying to make something out of nothing."

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