Asa Hutchinson

My life has never been a part of a big plan. It's more of an unfolding adventure.

Historically, there is a presumption that the legitimate police powers of the states are not to be pre-empted by federal law unless Congress has made that purpose clear.

On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton emphasized her experience. Yes, experience matters, but judgment matters more. Despite her experience, Hillary Clinton's poor decisions have produced bad results. Just think about it.

Proper training and federal supervision in state-federal partnerships are essential to both assuring constitutional rights and enforcing our immigration laws. Our Founding Fathers' concept of federalism does not prohibit such cooperation, and we have learned from experience that joint efforts work best.

When I was involved in the initial creation of the Department of Homeland Security, we were given a clear twofold mission. The first part of the mission was to secure our borders. The second was to maintain the free and efficient flow of commerce and people.

We recognize that it is not only inbound but also outbound (cargo) that can pose a risk as well.

If we're talking about big-tent thinking in the Republican Party, I think we're all going to unite under a consistent economic theory. That's where our unity is, and that's what unites us.

People resisted having weapons on airplanes, but I oversaw the federal air marshals. It's a deterrent. No one sees that weapon, but they are protected on that airplane, and it's a huge positive impact on safety.

We measure very carefully what the positives are and I think it is less than one tenth of one percent, so we are very pleased with the accuracy of our biometric checks and we continue to monitor that.

As we approached our work, my colleagues and I looked to the U.S. Constitution for guidance. It states, 'No person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.' No person, no exceptions.

The true credit for our safety and security goes to our men and women who are serving in places like Iraq and Afghanistan in the global war on terrorism.

We get divided generationally and in other ways - libertarians versus more traditional social conservatives, for example - and we've got to provide some flexibility there. But we don't need to have quite so many litmus tests. We need to have our big picture focused on economic issues.