Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said he is a “traditional Kennedy Democrat” who will “not be Donald Trump’s vice president.”

Kennedy, who is running to replace President Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, made the remarks during a campaign event in Beverly Hills Thursday, where he screened a documentary about his June visit to the U.S. border with Mexico and spoke with supporters about immigration issues.

“There’s a lot of politicians throughout our history that have talked about the border issue as a way to stir up or incite xenophobia or raise nationalism,” Kennedy told a small but enthusiastic crowd of about 200 supporters, who gave him a standing ovation as he took the stage. “I might come to this issue from a different perspective, and it’s a perspective of compassion, of humanitarianism, but also just common sense. A country cannot exist if it can’t secure its border.”

Since declaring his candidacy in April, the 69-year-old son of the assassinated U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy has drawn criticism from many in his party for supporting conspiracy theories and policies that are more aligned with Republicans, several of them having to do with health issues such as vaccines.

He continued to blur the lines between the two parties during Thursday’s campaign stop, where he narrowed his focus to the U.S. border with Mexico.

Before speaking to his supporters for an hour, Kennedy screened a 19-minute documentary called “Midnight at the Border” about his visit to Yuma, Ariz., in June.

The film opened with his arrival at a section of the border wall at 1 a.m., where 150 migrants had already passed through a gap in the infamous wall that began construction during President Trump’s term and was terminated after President Biden took office.

Prior to exiting the vehicle, Kennedy told the camera he was hoping to get ideas to solve the problem. For the duration of the short film, he spoke with migrants who shared their stories about why they had left their home countries and border patrol agents about their experiences encountering 2,000 people daily.

He spoke with law enforcement, the military and politicians about the role of Mexican cartels in human and drug trafficking, and health care providers about the often traumatic effects of immigrants’ travels to the U.S.

“I went down to the border feeling that Trump had made a mistake on the wall, but you know, I feel like people need to be able to recalibrate their worldview when they’re confronted with evidence,” Kennedy said. “When I’m president, what I’m going to do is bring in Republicans and Democrats and get the best Republican ideas and the best Democratic ideas and put everything on the table.”

Kennedy said he does not think the country needs a 2,200-mile wall stretching from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, “but we do need something,” he said. “Number one, we need to restore those barriers. They don’t all have to be physical barriers, but we need some barriers so that we know every single person who’s crossing.”

He suggested a combination of physical barriers in urban areas and cameras, videos, lights and sensors in more remote places.

“Then we need to change our relationship with some of the countries south of the border to bring them into partnership,” he continued, adding that improving the U.S. relationship with Mexico will be one of his highest priorities if he is elected president.

He said the country also needs to process legal asylum seekers at the border, so “specious claimants are not allowed into this country. They’re turned away” instead of being allowed to stay in the country while they await arraignment — a process that can take years.  

Kennedy estimated that 16 million illegal immigrants are currently in the United States — a number far higher than the 11 million cited by most immigrant rights groups. He estimated that 7 million illegal immigrants had entered the U.S. in the last three years.

Kennedy framed the immigration debate as one that is both economic and humanitarian, suggesting at one point that the most effective way to end illegal immigration would be to prosecute employers who hire undocumented people for far less than the legally allowed minimum wage.

“I’m not saying this is what we need to do right away,” he said, “but I’m pointing to the obvious. Nobody would hire them if people were going to jail for doing that.”

Employers hiring illegal labor “will impact the price of labor and the wage of labor for every other working American.”

Kennedy said we are living in a country where 57% of Americans cannot put their hands on $1,000 if they have an emergency and where 35% of Americans do not make enough money to meet their basic needs for food, transportation and shelter.

When President Ronald Reagan first took office in 1981, there were one million illegal immigrants in the U.S., and 30% of American workers were in unions. Today, he said, there are 16 million illegal immigrants and just 10% of American workers are in unions. The policies of the Trump and Biden administrations “have completely failed the middle class in this country.”

“I’m a traditional Kennedy Democrat,” said Kennedy, the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy. “I think human dignity and particularly the dignity of the workers and the American middle class are the foundation stones not only of our economy but American democracy.”