Joseph McGraw , a retired Illinois Circuit Court judge, said securing the United States’ southern border would be his top priority if elected to Congress.
The Rockford resident convened a “law enforcement roundtable” of active and retired law enforcement friends and supporters Wednesday morning to discuss the nation border policy and other challenges facing local police departments.
McGraw is running as a Republican to unseat U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Moline.
The immigration crisis and the New Year’s Eve arrival of a plane loaded with 355 migrants at the Chicago Rockford International Airport dominated much of the conversation. They also discussed struggles with police recruitment and the opioid addiction crisis.
More: What happened the night a plane filled with asylum seekers landed in Rockford?
McGraw said he would continue to use the roundtable as a sounding board if elected.
“The first thing to do is to secure the border and then we have to work on some kind of immigration policy, but we have to stop the flow,” McGraw said. “It’s like the federal government seems to want to just, you know, they know the roof is leaking so they just want to buy more buckets rather than fix the roof.”