Border patrol chief says the wall is 'not just a dumb barrier'

The $5 billion President Trump wants for border wall funding would pay for a high-tech structure, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said on ABC's This Week Sunday.

"What we're talking about is not just a dumb barrier," McAleenan told host Martha Raddatz. "We're talking about sensors, cameras, lighting, access roads for our agents, a system that helps us secure that area of the border. That's what we were asking [from] Congress."

McAleenan also responded to the deaths of two migrant children in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody this month, for which President Trump has blamed congressional Democrats. The deaths are "absolutely devastating for us on every level. It's been over a decade since we've had a child die anywhere in our processes," he said, arguing that current U.S. immigration policies encourage families to make the dangerous journey to the United States.

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Watch the full interview below. Bonnie Kristian