Dan Osborn on Immigration

ICE mission should be: Get criminals out and deport them

Osborn: Immigration enforcement is to make sure that our communities stay safe, right? That violent criminals who come up here, set up shops in our neighborhoods, sex trafficking, fentanyl, you name it, it's to get them out and deport them. I agree with that fundamental mission. But what we're seeing is the same mission performed off of a budget of $7 billion. Now that's been increased to $80 billion. If you're a true fiscal conservative you should be concerned with this number. We have to keep our communities safe but we should never get used to troops in our street and masking agents. Congress has a duty to make sure training is proper and body cameras are worn.

Ricketts: This is Democrat Dan doing one of those lies. He says, "I like a secure border," but he also says he wants illegal immigrants to get a pathway to citizenship. He is on tape saying, 'I can't say abolish ICE or I won't get elected.'

The border wall is a symbol of racism

In leaked audio obtained by Playbook, the independent Nebraska Senate candidate backed by the Nebraska Democratic Party also suggested his past support for the wall was a matter of "trying to win votes in a Republican state."

Osborn has been meeting over the last year with Latino Democrats in Nebraska in a bid to land support from the influential bloc of voters in light of his past statements and his record as a local labor leader.

Osborn's remarks about the wall came after an attendee at the private meeting said his past positions were "adjacent to some of what Trump was saying about the wall."

I support strong, effective border security

Osborn was asked about his past use of the word "illegal" to describe undocumented immigrants and [whether he would] reconsider his terminology. "In every room I talk to, I am clear that I support strong, effective border security," Osborn told Playbook in a statement. "When I give President Trump full credit for securing the border, some people don't like that. But because I'm an independent, I don't have to blindly support the purity tests of either party. I'll fight for a border wall where it makes sense, and other strategies where it doesn't, like in Big Bend National Park."

Illegal immigration is detrimental to every American worker