Oklahoma Republican wishes Mexican border was more like Afghanistan: 'We were allowed to shoot 'em'

A Republican congressional challenger compared his combat tour in Afghanistan to the U.S.-Mexico border, but with more shooting.

Jarrin Jackson, a 30-year-old U.S. Army veteran who is challenging incumbent Rep. Markwayne Mullin in the GOP primary, spoke to conservative radio host Steve Deace about his tours of duty in Afghanistan, reported Right Wing Watch.

“The first go-around, I was a platoon leader just a few miles away from the Pakistan border,” Jackson said, “and really, what we were doing was shore up a porous border kind of like, imagine our southern border, except for we were allowed to shoot ‘em.”

Jackson, a West Point graduate who rose to the rank of captain, has blamed "Washington bureaucrats" and lawmakers like his opponent in the 2nd Congressional race for the failure to end terrorism.

“When I served in Afghanistan, I saw first hand the effects of decisions made by Washington bureaucrats who made political decisions without recognizing they were having devastating consequences on real people – including stopping us from engaging ISIS in their infancy before they grew into the threat they are today,” Jackson told the Tulsa World. “In Washington, politicians alike Mr. Mullin are just as culpable. They make decisions through the political lens of how it affects them personally, with complete disregard that their vote and backroom dealings have devastating effects on our economy and our national security.”

Jackson, who has compared himself to the Oklahoma lawmaker who called on President Barack Obama to apologize for funding climate change research, has been endorsed by the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee.

He's not the first Republican lawmaker or candidate to fantasize about shooting immigrants crossing the border from Mexico.

Chris Mapp, a Tea Party Texas Senate candidate, called on ranchers to shoot undocumented "wetback" immigrants during a 2014 editorial board meeting, and Texas state Rep. Doug Miller that same year defended the rights of a militia group whose leader called for shooting migrants who refuse to turn back.

Georgia state Rep. John Yates in 2010 compared illegal immigrants to Hitler and urged Americans to shoot and kill them.

More recently, Donald Trump has called for a border wall to keep out "racists" and other criminals, which has encouraged some supporters to fantasize about collecting bounties for killing immigrants, although he has not explicitly called for those shootings himself.

Failed GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson called for military drone strikes along the U.S.-Mexico border, although he later insisted he meant the drones should target only hiding places along the border and not kill actual human beings.