In a statement posted on his website Wednesday, former Congressman and retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Allen West defended the embattled Donald Trump for attempting to highlight controversial remarks regarding illegal immigrants and the failures of America's immigration policies. 

Saying that while Trump's remarks were "somewhat inarticulately brought home," Allen argued that Trump was making a "very pertinent point." Citing the tragedy of the senseless killing of Kate Steinle by a five-times deported illegal immigrant with a felony record, West called for a sensible approach to immigration. "It's not a very hard thing to understand," said West, "we need a Congress that uphold our laws and sovereignty."

Here's West's full statement: 

Folks can be as upset as they want with Donald Trump and inflict all these cancellations on his private sector business enterprises, be it Univision, Macy’s, PGA, ESPN, NASCAR or whomever. The bottom line is that he somewhat inarticulately brought home a very pertinent point. It’s a point that, sadly, has come to the forefront of national news with the death of a young Kathryn Steinle at the hands of an illegal immigrant in San Francisco, who’d been deported some five times. We also learned about another criminal illegal alien — deported seven times — who was driving while high and almost killed a mother and her two young children.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 clearly states, “The Congress shall have Power To…establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization….”.

It’s not a very hard thing to understand: we need a Congress that upholds our laws and sovereignty. We don’t need an executive branch that seeks to usurp this enumerated power, granted to the legislative branch, because of political reasons. There’s no valid explanation as to why someone deported five times was able to kill an American citizen.

For his comments about the criminal nature of many illegal immigrants—calling some of them "rapists"—Trump has not only come under fire from the left, but many of his fellow Republican presidential candidates and the Republican Party have condemned his remarks as inflammatory and unhelpful. Despite the massive pushback from critics and business partners, Trump has continued to stand his ground.