Rep. Ro Khanna: Republicans and Democrats must work together to solve immigration crisis

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Democrats and Republicans need to work together to reach bipartisan solutions on the issue of immigration, and there are concrete ways to do so, according to Rep. Ro Khanna.

As parties become more and more divided on what to do at the border, Rep. Khanna, D-Calif., spoke on "America's Newsroom" on Thursday morning to discuss ways we can all find common ground.

The Democratic congressman believes the United States should be more involved violence reduction abroad, and the processing of refugees in their home countries before they ever arrive at the United States border.

"There's no doubt that the number of people coming over has increased - that's a fact," Khanna said.

"Vanderbilt has done a study that one of the real reasons people are coming over is because of violence. I believe we need to have U.S. aid programs that are working to decrease the violence there so that people stay there," he continued. "I think we need to be processing these people in country - in Guatemala, in El Salvador, in Honduras - before they come to the border."

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders discussed this theory during an appearance on "America's Newsroom" this week, saying Mexico has become more involved in processing individuals attempting to immigrate to the United States in their own country.

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In terms of President Trump's declaration that the border crisis may warrant a complete shutdown between the United States and Mexico, Rep. Khanna believes that the president would be better off focusing on how to find bipartisan solutions at home.

"I think if the president focused on places where we could have common ground - better technology on the border, more immigration judges so we're processing these cases, more support for these countries so they develop economically and stabilize so we won't see that number of migrants coming here," he said.

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"We have differences in opinion, but everyone recognizes that having 100,000 people in a month come in a month is not a good thing."

He concluded: "There are places we can work collectively to solve this issue."