U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he called President Trump to advise him about potential unintended consequences of closing the Mexico border.

“I told him that I understand his frustration,” Cornyn said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday. “The problem really lies in the defects and gaps in our asylum laws that are being exploited now.

“They allow people to come from Central America through Mexico and turn themselves in to the border patrol, who have been so preoccupied processing these asylum seekers, they’ve been handing out juice boxes and diapers, rather than dealing with dangerous drugs or human traffickers.”

Cornyn said he asked the president to work with his administration to find targeted ways to encourage Mexico and Central America to work more cooperatively with the United States.

“I’m sure [closing the border] would be harmful to our relationships and be harmful to our economy,” Cornyn said. “He asked me to talk to members of his cabinet, which I’m in the process of doing and seeing if we can come up with some alternatives.”

Earlier this week, Cornyn called for compromise over politics regarding the border, but put the responsibility on the Democrats to come to table.

“We saw the government shut down for 35 days because of a zero-sum game over physical barriers at the border,” he said. House Speaker “Nancy Pelosi took the position that walls and fencing were immoral and (U.S. Sen.) Chuck Schumer took the position that they weren’t going to spend one penny on the physical barriers, even though back in 2006 and 2008, there was a bipartisan act passed that paid for and authorized barriers along the border and key locations.”

Cornyn said he is frustrated and can understand the president’s concern.

“A few years ago a Democrat from Laredo, Henry Cuellar, and I introduced a bill called the Humane Act that would changed the asylum laws to require people coming from noncontiguous countries to be treated the same way we treat immigrants from Mexico and Canada.”

Cornyn said because of a long-standing piece of legislation focused on human trafficking, anyone that brings a child, or an unaccompanied child, is placed with a sponsor and the case can take years to appear in front of an immigration judge.

The senator said cartels exploit such loopholes.

“We have to work together to fix the problem,” he said. “While I support legal immigration, what we have now is not compassionate, and I think it is dangerous.”