The son of immigrants who fled communist Eastern Europe immediately after World War II, Dr. Andy Harris was as a physician at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, a medical officer in the Naval Reserve, and a state senator before coming to Congress.
Born in Brooklyn in 1957, he studied medicine at Hopkins, where he continued to practice as an anesthesiologist for nearly three decades. Andy specialized in obstetric anesthesiology.
In 1988, Andy answered a recruitment call to fill a critical need for anesthesiologists in the Naval Reserve during the Reagan administration. He went on to establish and command The Johns Hopkins Medical Naval Reserve Unit. In 1990, his unit was called up to active duty in order to assist with Operation Desert Shield (and later Operation Desert Storm) at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Harris attained the rank of Commander (O-5) before leaving the Reserves after seventeen years.
As the child of immigrants, I recognize that legal immigrants have always been important to America. However, porous borders and inefficient bureaucrats enable undocumented aliens to enter our country illegally and even legal temporary visa holders to overstay their visas. Illegal immigration undermines the American workforce and creates real national security risks for the United States.
Securing our border is the first step to ending illegal immigration into the United States, and can be accomplished through increasing and empowering our border patrol, using advanced technology, and building physical barriers where necessary. Maintaining a secure border also requires better tracking of immigrants' visas to cut down on the number of visa overstays.