Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance launched a scathing critique of the Biden-Harris administration’s border policy during a visit to Arizona’s Cochise County, an area he described as a “smuggler’s paradise.”
While visiting the U.S.-Mexico border, Vance was surprised by two unexpected visitors — and it’s proof how out-of-control the border crisis has become.
Vance was interrupted during an interview with Newsmax at the border by would-be smugglers drones, used to scout for U.S. law enforcement — not once, but twice.
The Republican running mate of Donald Trump’s tour of the U.S.-Mexico border was highlighted by sharp criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris’s role as “border czar” and promises of sweeping changes if Trump win the November election.
What Vance saw at the Tucson border sector, known for its dangerous terrain and recent record-breaking fentanyl seizures — and the two visits by drones allegedly operated by smugglers — stunned the Republican vice presidential candidate.
“It’s like, this is our country, right?” Vance said. “We’re in our country, the United States of America, and we’re worried about drones invading our airspace when the vice presidential nominee is here for an interview.”
Vance didn’t mince words in blasting the current administration’s border mismanagement.
“It’s unbelievable what we’re letting happen at the southern border, and it’s because Kamala Harris refuses to do her job,” Vance stated. “But the truth is that she has been the border czar for 3 1/2 years. It’s been a total disaster.”
“Our communities are suffering, people are overdosing from fentanyl. This can be stopped,” Vance said.
He also referenced high-profile crimes committed by illegal immigrants, including the tragic case of Jocelyn Nungaray, attributing such incidents to what he termed the “Harris-Biden border failure.”
“You’ve got to stop catch-and-release, you’ve got to force asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while their claims are being adjudicated, and you’ve got to finish this border wall and reimplement deportations,” the Ohio Republican said.
“If people could come into this country, and they know they’re never going to be deported, you effectively have an open border. That’s what Kamala Harris promised. That’s what Kamala Harris did.”
“You don’t have to guess at it because they say it. Now, of course, they accuse Republicans of racism for saying this, but you just take the Democrats’ own words,” he said. “They say that they want to import millions of legal aliens, give them the right to vote, give them amnesty, and then they don’t have to worry about persuading their own citizens anymore because they then have imported a new group of voters.”
Vance dismissed the recent Democrat-backed border deal, which Harris has pushed, as an ineffective political stunt.
“It would codify ‘catch and release,’ which is one of the reasons why we have such a terrible border policy. It would not end the millions of illegal paroles that Biden and Harris have implemented, which threw open the gates,” he said.
“I just talked to the Border Patrol men out here,” Vance concluded. “They said, ‘We don’t need new laws. We need a border czar that tells us that we’re allowed to do our job.’ That’s what needs to change.”