In Georgia, Vance attacks Harris over immigration

At a solo campaign event in rural Georgia, Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance blamed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for “opening up the southern border and allowing all these drug cartels to bring all the drugs and crime into our communities.”

Vance alleged that by saying former President Donald Trump is the law and order candidate, Harris wants to dismantle the police and allow “soft-on-crime prosecutors” to target law enforcement.

“We have a messed-up vice president making decisions, and I think it’s time to fire Kamala Harris, not promote her,” Vance said at a lively event where he was flanked by law enforcement officers and vehicles and often cheered. “I happen to believe in a common sense principle: Stand with the blue and bring public safety back to Georgia and back to our country.”

While illegal border crossings have been increasing in recent years, those numbers have plummeted in recent months in the wake of President Joe Biden’s June executive action to clamp down on asylum claims as the U.S.-Mexico border becomes overloaded. Illegal border crossings fell to a four-year low last month; Border Patrol reported 56,408 port-of-entry encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border in July, the lowest monthly total since September 2020. It also represents a 32% decline from the previous month.

Republicans have used a false attack line to blame Harris for the Biden administration’s actions at the border, claiming that President Joe Biden made the vice president the “border czar” responsible for security at the U.S.-Mexico border. In March 2021, Biden tasked Harris with leading the administration’s efforts to address the root causes of what drives people in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to migrate to the U.S. Border security is the responsibility of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The White House has never used the term “border czar” to describe Harris’ role.

Vance’s visit to Georgia was the latest in Republican counterprogramming to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week. Trump was set to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Thursday as they try to link Harris to immigration issues, while Democrats at the convention have blamed the Republican ex-president for killing a bipartisan Senate border deal earlier this year.

Trump, Vance said, will properly fund law enforcement with higher salaries and the equipment they need, and will ensure that “soft-on-crime prosecutors and police are no longer the bad guys.”

Before his speech, Vance said sheriffs in the Georgia town of Valdosta, 1,200 miles from the Mexican border, showed him boxes of children’s candy laced with drugs that had entered the country through the southern border.

“Every city is a border city and every state is a border state because of Kamala Harris’ policies,” he said. “Think about how sick you have to be to make drugs that look like candy for kids and think about how sick Kamala Harris has to be to let those people do business in our country instead of throwing the hell out of our country.”

Similar to a speech Trump gave earlier this week, Vance said, “Our message to anyone who wants to come to this country is: come through the proper channels.”

Ryan Chatelain of Spectrum News contributed to this report.