The United States should borrow ideas from Communist East Germany to keep its borders secure, Alaska's Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller suggested at a town hall Sunday night.
"The first thing that has to be done is secure the border," Miller said when asked about illegal immigration into the United States, Alaskan blogger Steve Aufrecht first reported.
Miller continued, "East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow. Now, obviously, other things were involved. We have the capacity to, as a great nation, secure the border. If East Germany could, we could."
The Tea Party-backed candidate, who is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, explained that he once served at the Fulda Gap, a point on the former East-West German border. East Germany's border troops were given orders to shoot anyone trying to flee East Germany.
Following the same town hall meeting, a reporter for the Alaska Dispatch was handcuffed and detained by private security guards working for Miller while trying to ask Miller a question.
