The high cost of gasoline, the nation’s energy situation and illegal immigrants were some of the issues U.S. Senator Roger Wicker discussed during his recent campaign stop in Jones County.

At one of Wicker’s stops, he visited veterans and their families at the Veterans Memorial Museum on Hillcrest Drive. Following a tour of the facility, Wicker talked about issues facing local residents and the nation.

Talking about energy, increased gas prices and illegal immigrants, Wicker said there’s much work to be done in the nation’s capital.

“I’m a strong opponent of illegal immigrants,” he said. “We’ve got to secure our borders.”

Wicker, who has voted to increase funding to build a fence along the southern border and to add more border patrol agents to protect the border, said enforcement is a key.

“We need to enforce the law and protect the border,” he said. “We should be able to tell businesses if someone is an illegal immigrant and then hold them accountable if they hire them after they have been informed.”

Wicker said, however, he thinks one of the most important issues facing Americans is the increasing prices of so many consumer goods, including fuel.

“Our federal policies of developing energy in the United States needs to be addressed,” he said. “We need to end the moratorium on deep sea drilling.

“We have three times the oil that Saudi Arabia has and yet it’s off limits,” the Senator said. “The middle class citizens and our small businesses are suffering.”

Wicker said he is now co-sponsoring a bill on Clean Energy Independence that would address this issue.

“We can drill oil off the Gulf of Mexico,” he said. “We need to use our own energy.”

Wicker will face Ronnie Musgrove in the Nov. 4 election to fill the seat vacated by Trent Lott.