Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said during an interview with the Washington Post that members of his party are “not even close” to understanding the problems on the U.S. southern border.

“Absolutely not. Not even close,” the incumbent senator said when asked if members of his party understood “the complexity of the issue and the frustrations that people have.”

“When I first got to Washington, it didn’t take me long to realize that there are a lot of Democrats who don’t understand our southern border and a lot of Republicans who just want to talk about it. Don’t necessarily want to do anything about it, just want to use it politically. So my approach has been — to the extent that we could and can — to make progress on securing it, but also doing it in a way that’s in accordance with our ethics and our values, not to demonize people,” Kelly added.

In the interview published Monday, Kelly advocated a middle-of-the-road approach to border issues, saying he wants to secure the border but not in a way that would “demonize people.” He did not elaborate much further on how he would secure the border beyond, “We have to do more in border security. We have to do more in comprehensive immigration reform, especially ‘dreamers,’ but also these visa programs. If you’re a farmer, especially in Southern Arizona, despite having a ready supply of eager workers, you don’t have the visas available and it’s a problem for them.”