Democratic presidential candidate and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Sunday said she doesn't support open borders like some of her Democratic opponents Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Julian Castro.
Klobuchar appeared on ABC's This Week, where she was asked if she supported decriminalizing unauthorized border crossings.
"Elizabeth Warren this week came out with a proposal following up on what Julian Castro said in the debate to decriminalize unauthorized border crossings. You said you were going to look at that in the debate. Do you support that idea?" fill-in host Jon Karl asked.
"I support different enforcement priorities and of course I'll look at the statute to see if you can make changes depending on the level of a security risk, but no I don't support open borders and simply getting rid of this statute" Klobuchar said, referring to Section 1325.
She went on to say she believes the best solution is replacing President Donald Trump with a Democratic president.
"The answer is when we are on the cusp of getting comprehensive reform done, which will be so much better for our economy," Klobuchar said. "The 2013 bill brought the deficit down according to every estimate by over $150 billion in ten years because people would start paying their taxes, then you take some of that money and you can use it for better order at the border for targeted reasons and then you can also look at those countries that we're talking about where we have seen this surge of asylum seekers."
Castro has been leading the debate on decriminalizing illegal border crossings and has called out a few of the other 2020 Democratic candidates for not supporting the proposal. He said last week that Beto O'Rourke, former Vice President Joe Biden, and former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson were "wrong" for their opposition to making illegal border crossings a civil violation.
O'Rourke came out Friday to say he will "make sure no one is criminally prosecuted for being a human being." He went on to say there will be no reason for people to cross in between ports of entry, but he said if people do, they will not be criminally prosecuted, adding they are "seeking safety or shelter or refuge or asylum."