Deirdre Shesgreen, 1:11 p.m. EST February 1, 2016



WASHINGTON—If Donald Trump needs any help fulfilling his promise to build a wall along the U.S-Mexico border, he’ll find a volunteer in Ohio.

Jim Spurlino, owner of Middletown's Spurlino Materials and a candidate for Ohio's 8th Congressional District, offered to send his company’s “mobile concrete plants” to the border to build a barricade that prevents immigrants from coming across illegally.

“The nation needs a concrete-strong border to protect patriotic Americans from foreign terrorists and illegal job-snatchers,” Spurlino said in a statement Monday.

Immigration experts said Spurlino’s offer is a clever publicity stunt, if not a serious policy proposal.

“It’s a great PR move for his company,” Marguerite Telford, a spokeswoman for the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes legal status for those now in the U.S. illegally.

“And I think it’s a great PR move for him because as we have learned through Trump, talking about immigration enforcement … resonates with the public.”

But, she said, it’s not clear how Spurlino’s offer would work in practice.

“You can’t just appear down there on property with cement trucks” and start building, she said.

Spurlino is one of several candidates running to fill the seat vacated by ex-House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester.

The Butler County businessman appears to be making tough-on-immigration the central of his campaign. He made headlines last month when he called for deporting some guests who attended President Obama's last State of the Union speech.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news...rump/79640708/