ESCONDIDO -- Six months into his first term in office, freshman Congressman Duncan D. Hunter said that maintaining defense spending -- which he said preserves national security and good-paying jobs -- is his top priority.

He also said the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba should remain open until the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over and the troops have returned home.

The El Cajon Republican was elected to Congress last year, succeeding his father, retired Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, who had held the seat since 1981.

The younger Hunter, who at 32 is the second-youngest member of Congress, sat for an interview earlier this week with members of the North County Times editorial board.

His 52nd District seat covers much of East County and parts of North County, such as Poway and Ramona. It stretches just north of the border from Otay Mesa to the Imperial County line.

Hunter, who served with the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan before winning office in November, said that national security and maintaining defense spending are his top priorities. The $534 billion defense spending plan proposed by the Obama administration in February contains an overall 4.1 percent increase from 2009 spending, despite cuts in some areas.

The defense industry provides jobs for thousands of people in the San Diego region. Hunter said he objects to some of the proposed cuts, including reductions to the missile defense system.

The Defense Department awarded contracts worth $7.1 billion to companies in San Diego County in fiscal 2007, according to an analysis of federal data by regional economist Kelly Cunningham.

"If we're out here to stimulate the economy, why do you want to cut thousands of defense jobs that hire a lot of middle-class Americans?" Hunter asked.

Hunter, like his father before him, sits on the House Armed Services Committee, which oversees military spending. He said North Korea's recent saber-rattling and nuclear test show there is a need for a missile defense system.

The congressman also said he opposes the president's plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

In April, the U.S. Senate voted to eliminate $80 million from a defense bill to close the terror-detainee prison. Some senators said they did so because the president has yet to provide a specific plan on how his administration will handle the 240 detainees still held at the U.S. Navy facility in Cuba.

The money was removed from the House version of the bill before it reached the floor.

In a letter to the House Appropriations Committee, several lawmakers, including Hunter, said spending any money to close the prison absent congressional hearings was wrong.

On Wednesday, Hunter went further, saying Congress should not talk about closing the prison "until the war is over. I think we ought to wait."

Detainees should face military tribunals, but should not be transferred to federal prisons or military detention facilities in the U.S., including the San Diego County bases at Camp Pendleton or Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

As his father was before him, Hunter is strongly in favor of beefing up border security -- building more fences and other infrastructure -- to keep out illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

In April, Hunter introduced a bill that would mandate that 350 miles of fence be built along the border with Mexico, require employers to verify a worker's legal status and deny federal funds to local governments that provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigration touches on nearly every problem the nation and the state faces, Hunter said.

"I don't believe anybody who's talking about righting California's economy, (its) health care problems, or the prison system or the educational system, if they don't talk about illegal immigration," Hunter said. "There has to be some fix for it. There has to be a way that we can enforce the border."

The congressman graduated from Granite Hills High School in El Cajon and received a degree in business administration from San Diego State University. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Hunter joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served as a field artillery officer.

Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511.