Beto O’Rourke Says ‘We Don’t Need a Wall,’ Calls For Universal Health Care on The Late Show

Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) stopped by The Late Show and drew quite a contrast between himself and his opponent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Stephen Colbert confronted O’Rourke head-on about his stance on immigration and more specifically “the wall” that President Donald Trump has been calling for.

“We don’t need a wall,” O’Rourke told Colbert.

O’Rourke argued that El Paso, the border town city that he currently represents as a congressman, is one of the “safest cities in the United States of America” and that what makes it safe is that it’s a “city of immigrants” and that “we treat one another with respect and dignity.”

Colbert then mentioned the proposal Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made last year that would have protected the DREAMers in exchange for funding for the wall, something O’Rourke opposed.

“Republican senior Sen. John Cornyn and I worked on a bill to improve border security by investing in our ports of entry,” O’Rourke elaborated. “So facilitating more legitimate trade and travel and having a better idea of who and what is coming in to our country. We don’t need walls. We can have smart security solutions. And we can free DREAMers from the fear of deportation by making them U.S. Citizens today so they can contribute to their maximum capacity, to their full potential. And we can move forward in that manner of making sure that we’re secure, and making sure that we live up to our values and our ideals. And Texas, the defining border state and immigration experience, we should lead on that.”

The Democrat dismissed Trump’s upcoming rally for Cruz because the “people of Texas are more than a match” for their alliance.

“They’re going to help us decide as a country are we a nation of walls? Will we ban all Muslims or all people of one religion? Will we describe the press as the ‘enemy of the people?’ Will we take kids away from their parents when they’re trying to claim asylum, fleeing from the most brutal countries in this hemisphere, if not the planet?” O’Rourke told Colbert. “Or are we going to be defined by our ambitions, the big things that we want to do, going from the least-insured state in the country to the one that leads on universal, guaranteed, high-quality health care for everyone? A state that values public education and pays their teachers accordingly and allows them to teach it a child instead of a standardized test? And this diverse state, the most diverse city in the country, Houston, Texas, could we lead on rewriting our immigration laws in our own image, reflecting on our experiences.  We can do all of those things.”

Watch the clip above, via CBS.