Former President Trump said on Tuesday that he wants to make at least one visit, and possibly more, to the southern border as he seeks to make the ongoing migrant crisis a central issue in his re-election campaign — and draw a contrast with “radical” Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The answer is yes. I will be taking at least another trip or two trips or three trips, whatever is necessary,” he said in response to a question about whether he will visit the border.
He said details were yet to be figured out along with other officials including former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan and former National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd.
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“We have a lot of knowledge of the border, I’ve been there many times,” he said.
Trump’s comments came as part of a call in which he took repeated shots at Harris for her role in the ongoing border crisis.
Harris was tasked by President Biden in 2021 with leading the diplomatic outreach to tackle the “root causes” of migration in the Northern Triangle countries. It led to her being dubbed the “border czar” by Republicans, although the White House has rejected that description. Border apprehensions from those countries have dropped from 700,000 in FY 21 to less than 500,000 in FY 23, although it is unclear the extent to which that drop is connected to those root cause strategies.
Since she has become the presumptive Democratic nominee after President Biden said he would step aside and backed Harris as his successor, Republicans have wasted no time in repeating the “border czar” title.
“Kamala Harris was appointed border czar, as you know, in March 2021, and since that time, millions and millions of illegal aliens have invaded our country, and countless Americans have been killed by migrant crime because of her willful demolition of American borders and laws,” Trump said on the call.
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“Working together with crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris supported a radical left policy of nationwide catch and release, halting all deportations, ending remain in Mexico so important, shredding my Safe Third agreement, stopping the wall construction,” he said.
Trump contrasted his policies on border security with those of the administration. Just as the Biden administration ended many of his policies after taking office, he pledged to scrap Biden policies if he is elected.
“So I will terminate every open-border policy of the Biden Harris administration. On day one, I will seal the border, stop the invasion, and keep America safe,” he said.
The Biden administration has pinned the blame for the crisis on Republicans in Congress for not having approved funding and reforms to what it says is a “broken” system.
It has also pointed to a recent executive order by President Biden that was announced in June to limit entries into the U.S., encounters overall have decreased by more than 50%, and the number of releases has decreased by 70%. Officials also say the administration has removed and returned more than 50,000 individuals to more than 100 countries.
Announcing that order in June, Biden blamed Trump for not having supported a bipartisan Senate package.
“He told the Republicans — it has been published widely by many of you — that he didn’t want to fix the issue; he wanted to use it to attack me. That’s what he wanted to do. It was a cynical and a…extremely cynical political move and a complete disservice to the American people, who are looking for us to — not to weaponize the border but to fix it,” he said.
Meanwhile, the back-and-forth is already having an effect on the border, A migrant caravan set off from the Mexican southern border this week, with reports that some migrants want to get to the border before a potential Trump victory in November.
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