Texas Rep. Will Hurd said a border wall must be used in conjunction with other strategies to control immigration. | Eric Gay/AP Photo Immigration Texas Republican says ‘emergency’ powers go too far

Rep. Will Hurd said Sunday morning that it’s time for Congress to claw back certain powers given to the president in times of emergency.

The Texan was just one of 13 House Republicans who voted alongside Democrats last month to block President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the border with Mexico.


But Hurd told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” that immigration and border security are still problems that need to be prioritized.

“I think the president being focused on border security is important,” Hurd said. “What I’ve always said — and I’ve been saying this since 2002 — building a 30-foot-high concrete structure from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security. And guess what? The president agrees. He mentioned that in one of his last announcements from the Rose Garden.”

Instead, the nation focus on options that better utilize technology, manpower and physical barriers “where it makes sense.”

Hurd added that he doesn’t have a problem with adding more physical barriers along the border — noting that approximately 40 percent of current border barriers are in his district.

“I don’t have a problem with that,” he said. “I voted for those things. I’ve voted, since I’ve been in Congress, for $220 billion of funding."

The issue, Hurd said, boils down to the word “emergency,” not “wall.”

“So ultimately, the issue with the use of the word ‘emergency’ is that gives the president certain powers that I believe goes against what our Constitution has said,” Hurd told Tapper. “Congress, back before I was alive, gave this authority up. They gave the power of the purse to the executive branch in times of emergency. I think we need to claw that back.”

Hurd’s voted to block the declaration partly because of the effects it would have on military bases.

“I have multiple military bases in my district and there’s a plan to take away about $4 billion from construction at our military bases,” he said. “In Del Rio, which is on our border, Laughlin Air Force Base produces more pilots than any other facility in the United States of America. There are projects there that take care of the men and women that keep us safe that are going to be impacted, and I don’t want to see that happen.”

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When push comes to shove, the administration and Congress should focus on fixing laws dealing with asylum and implementing more effective technology, Hurd added.

“We have six months, seven months left in the fiscal year. It’s going to be almost impossible to spend $8 billion from other areas,” he said. “We had a bill that funded border security. We’ve done $220 billion over the last year. This is a problem.

“We need to focus on things like fixing asylum because asylum is being abused for people coming here,” Hurd said. “We should be using more technology. We’re not using the latest and greatest technology. You can put what I call a smart wall along the border, all 2,000 miles, in less than a year and gain operational control along the border, which means you know everything that’s going back and forth across the border.”