For Immediate Release
September 27, 2024
Contact: Taylor Haulsee
WASHINGTON — Speaker Johnson released the below statement ahead of Vice President Harris’ visit to the southern border, her first in more than three years. She is expected to blame a former president for the border catastrophe her administration engineered.
“Four years ago, the border was secure, but then Kamala Harris systematically rolled back all safety measures that secured the border. Now, she’s making a sad, desperate attempt to convince the American people that she, all of the sudden, actually cares about border security.
“When Vice President Harris was put in charge of the border, she created the worst border catastrophe in our nation’s history – on purpose – and welcomed into our American communities violent gangs, drug cartels, human traffickers, child smugglers, murderers, and terrorists. She lost hundreds of thousands of migrant children and let ISIS form smuggling rings in our cities, all while having the gall to claim the border was ‘secure.’
“Today’s visit is a slap in the face to the families of Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungary, Rachel Morin, Kayla Hamilton, to the American people so negatively impacted by Kamala Harris’ dangerous and deadly border polices, and to the cities that have been overrun by violent, destructive gangs. Kamala Harris cannot fool anyone into thinking she cares about protecting the homeland because after four years of this, it’s clear she doesn’t.”
Background:
- Since day one, the Biden-Harris Administration took 64 actions to undermine America’s border security.
- Since early 2021, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recorded more than 8.3 million encounters at the southern border, and roughly 2 million known gotaways have evaded Border Patrol agents since Fiscal Year (FY) 21.
- From FY21 through August 2024, the Border Patrol had recorded more than 53,000 arrests of illegal aliens with criminal backgrounds and more than 400 illegal aliens listed on of the terrorist watchlist.
- According to a letter from ICE Deputy Director Patrick Lechleitner, as of July, nearly 650,000 criminal illegal aliens were currently on ICE’s Non-Detained Docket (NDD) and roaming free in communities throughout the United States.
- As of July, Vice President Harris had never spoken to current Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens, or his predecessor, Chief Raul Ortiz.
- On July 25, the House of Representatives condemned the Biden-Harris Administration’s open-borders policies, and Harris’ failure as “Border Czar.”
Read more about “Border Czar” Harris’ disaster HERE.
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