Lieberman: Border closing should be on the table

The Obama administration and Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano should not have taken closing the border with Mexico off the table as a method to contain swine flu, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) argued Thursday.

“We urged Secretary Napolitano to please keep that option open. We’re not recommending it,” Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said on Fox News. “It just seems to us that if we get to a point where contagion can be carried by proximity and there are more of the cases in Mexico then we want to keep separate for a while.”

While some lawmakers such as Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) have called for a closed border with Mexico, where swine flu cases have run amok, the administration has rejected calls for such a response, reasoning it would damage the political and economic relationship with Mexico.

“If you close the border with Mexico even temporarily, it would have tremendous economic, dislocating effects. It’ll also dislocate a lot of personal lives of people who go back and forth most every day,” Lieberman explained. “But if we get to a point where public health experts tell us that closing the border temporarily will save lives in this country, then that’s a choice that we’ve got to make.”

Watch a video of the interview below: