Russell Pearce: '9/11 would have been averted if immigration laws were enforced'

Former Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce was a driving force behind SB 1070, Arizona’s immigration law.

Pearce tells Soledad O’Brien on Starting Point today that the law is necessary because “the sovereign state of Arizona has a right to protect its citizens and jobs for Americans and secure its border.”

What does Arizona's immigration law do?

“Apparently to the cheap labor, the cheap vote crowd it’s okay,” says Pearce. “The cost in billions of dollars is okay for them. It’s outrageous. Do you know how the immigration law has been enforced? Reasonably enforced? 9/11 would have been averted. Four out of the five main hijackers were stopped by law enforcement and let go and were in the country illegally.”

Watch more from Soledad's interview with Russell Pearce on CNN’s “Starting Point” in the clip below.