Vance slams Harris over illegal immigration

Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance stressed Sunday that tackling the problem of illegal immigration must start with curbing the flow of unauthorized border crossings. He argued that this requires reversing policies that Kamala Harris has implemented since the start of the Biden-Harris administration.

Senator Vance, a Republican from Ohio, made the comments during an interview with NBC News’ “Meet The Press.”

“If you want to get control of the problem of illegal immigration, you have to stop the bleeding,” Vance told host Kristen Welker.

Vance criticized Vice President Harris’s handling of border policy. Harris, who was appointed border czar in March 2021, has overseen a period in which some 12 million people have entered the country illegally in the past three and a half years. Vance argued that many of those individuals “should have been deported but were not.”

“You have to stop so many people from coming here illegally, and that means you have to undo everything that Kamala Harris did on basically Day One of the administration,” Vance said. “You have to reinstate deportations; you have to stop catch-and-release; you have to stop granting asylum to everyone who comes here … and you have to stop mass parole.”

“Before we even solve the problem, we have to prevent it from getting worse.”

Vance also disputed Welker’s claim that the number of illegal border crossings has now declined under Harris’ leadership.

“The southern border crossings are down because the Harris administration is sending more immigrants through the crossings,” Vance explained. “It’s not down in illegal crossings, it’s just shifting the way people are getting across the border in the first place.”

Welker said the border now functions more effectively under Harris’s watch.

“I don’t want a border czar who makes it more efficient for illegal immigrants to come into this country,” Vance responded.

Vance also responded to Harris’ claims during her recent convention speech, in which she argued that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s immigration policies would result in the separation of immigrant families. Vance countered that this is already happening on Harris’ watch, and suggested that the best way to keep families together is to prevent them from crossing the border illegally in the first place.

“I think families are being torn apart right now,” Vance noted.

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog warned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lost track of tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children under the Biden-Harris administration.

“Kamala Harris’ policies have resulted in thousands and thousands of migrant children living with sex traffickers and drug cartels,” Vance alleged. “That’s the result of her policies.”

{Matzav.com}