By Elizabeth Troutman |

America should deny demands from Mexico for billions of dollars in order to stop the flow of illegal immigration, according to U.S. Senate candidate Mark Lamb on Tuesday.

Lamb, a Republican and the current sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, criticized Mexican President Lopez Obrador’s list of demands which the United States would need to meet in exchange for Mexico to help slow illegal immigration across the southern border.

“I consider the demands made by Mexico as DOA – dead on arrival,” Lamb said. “The last time I looked, the Mexican President doesn’t get to set U.S. domestic and foreign policy. I call upon the entire Arizona Congressional delegation to unite and publicly reject these conditions imposed by Mexico.”

Obrador demanded the U.S. give $20 billion to Latin American and Caribbean countries; grant work visas to 10 million Hispanics who have worked in the U.S. for at least 10 years; and end sanctions against Venezuela and halt the blockade of Cuba.

Mexico is responsible for slowing illegal immigration into America, according to Lamb. 

“As our southern neighbor, the responsibility is on them to do everything they can to work with us – without preconditions – to stop the hundreds of thousands of illegals crossing our mutual border,” Lamb said. “We shouldn’t take kindly to having a gun put to our head just to have Mexico do what’s right.”

Lamb said the Mexican president’s demands are an example of President Joe Biden’s “lost control of the border.”

Border Patrol encountered 2.5 million migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2023, topping the previous year’s record, according to the Migration Policy Institute. 

“It’s bad enough that Biden doesn’t have a plan to stop the hundreds of thousands of illegals crossing the border and the fentanyl that comes with them, now Biden is allowing our nation to be held hostage by the President of Mexico,” Lamb continued. 

Lamb is running for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s seat. He has said that if elected, he will work to secure the border with Trump-era policies. 

“We’ve got to shut the border down, secure the border and we’ve got to restore the ‘Remain in Mexico’ program,” Lamb told Fox News. 

“We’re gonna have a mass deportation situation on our hands and so we’ve got to get back to securing the border – first and foremost – which would stop the fentanyl,” Lamb continued to Fox News. “It would weaken the cartels and allow border patrol to get back to doing their jobs because right now they are completely handcuffed.” 

Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.