Rio Grande Valley Congressman Vicente Gonzalez stopped by Channel 5 News and spoke on the immigration front and cartel activity.

Vicente said he's in favor of deporting criminal migrants from the United States, but he'd like longtime undocumented immigrants to have the option to fix their status, especially those with a clean record.

"When we're talking about taking good, hardworking Americans out of jobs, I'm against it. I think we should be very careful, I think we should find solutions, especially for people that have been here for five years or longer, have never been in any trouble," Gonzalez said. "And give them a working Visa and get them out of the shadows."

Gonzalez says there needs to be pathways for legal immigration to fill open positions in the U.S.

He says the U.S. has nearly 8 million job openings in agriculture, construction and hospitality that are not being filled by U.S. workers.

Gonzalez also spoke on cartels, comparing them to that of terrorist groups.

"If you see the behavior of some of the cartels, it's not much different than what you see in Al-Qaeda or you see Hezbollah," Gonzalez said.

The Trump Administration is planning to label cartels as terrorist organizations. Gonzalez is concerned a lack of cooperation between Mexico and the U.S. on cartel activity could lead to American military intervention.

"It's not unfathomable to think that they could one day propose to go after cartels unilaterally," Gonzalez said. "I would hate to see that day. I think we should be working with the government of Mexico, and we should be doing it together, but if this problem continues to fester and grow and be ignored, I could see that day one day."

Gonzalez adds American business owners have reported they've been asked to pay extortion fees to get their goods through Mexico.

Gonzalez says that could be an issue during free trade agreement negotiations between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.