New Jersey Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Hugin said Friday on "Fox & Friends First" that it's time for comprehensive immigration reform, while also putting an end to sanctuary cities and securing the Mexican border.

Hugin, a Marine veteran and business executive, said sanctuary cities "make no sense" and that public safety is something all New Jerseyans should agree on.

He faces incumbent Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who has a decades-long career in Washington, D.C. and Union City, N.J. politics.

Hugin said he considers sanctuary cities effectively "pitting one law enforcement agency against another."

"You're not a country if you don't have secure borders," he added.

New Jersey has several major sanctuary municipalities, including its largest city, Newark, and a trio of counties elsewhere in the state, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

Before his 2017 arrest on corruption charges, longtime Paterson Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres (D) also pledged not to alert federal authorities of the presence of illegal immigrants, while stopping short of declaring the Passaic County seat a "sanctuary city."

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Hugin said that in addition to enforcing the law, it is important to have "compassion" for DREAMers, and allow them a path to citizenship -- but not a path quicker than those immigrants who came to America legally.

Hugin said that although a court found Menendez not guilty of corruption and other charges, the Senate Ethics Committee came to bipartisan agreement that he violated the law and disgraced the Senate.

"New Jersey deserves better than a 35-year track record of corruption," Hugin said, adding that during his travels around the state's 21 counties, he has encountered many voters ready for a change.

In the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, Menendez leads Hugin by eight percentage points.

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