During a CNN interview, pro-immigration liberal New York Times columnist Tom Friedman said he thought it was time that the United States built a "high wall with a big gate" on the border with Mexico.

Wait...what did he say?

In a Tuesday column for the New York Times, Friedman wrote about a trip he took earlier this month to the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego. After being taken on a tour by the U.S. Border Patrol and discussing some statistics about illegal immigration, Friedman came to what was perhaps a surprising conclusion:

The whole day left me more certain than ever that we have a real immigration crisis and that the solution is a high wall with a big gate — but a smart gate.

Friedman said that the current "unthinking approach" to immigration was critically flawed. He argued that it encouraged illegal immigration while discouraging highly skilled foreign workers from legally immigrating.

Without a high wall, too many Americans will lack confidence that we can control our borders, and they therefore will oppose the steady immigration we need. But for this wall to have a big gate, it has to be a smart and compassionate one, one that says, "Besides legitimate asylum seekers, we'll accept immigrants at a rate at which they can be properly absorbed into our society and work force, and we'll favor visa seekers with energies and talents that enrich and advance our society." That's the opposite of the unstrategic, far-too random, chaotic immigration "system" we have now.

During a CNN interview, Friedman stressed that he was "as radically pro-immigration as they come" but said it was clear to him that "unless we can assure a significant number of Americans that we can control our border, we're never going to have the proper immigration flow I think we need."

Friedman also suggested that President Donald Trump had the ability to reach a workable immigration compromise with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).