Samuel Case, FISM News
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Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley visited the southern border on Monday, laying out a plan to end the surge of illegal immigrants flooding into the United States.
“This is not a Republican or Democrat issue, this is a national security issue,” Haley said during a press conference in Eagle Pass, Texas with Rep. Tony Gonzales, (R-Texas). She is the first 2024 presidential candidate to visit the border on the campaign trail.
The former South Carolina governor’s plan includes firing 87,000 IRS agents to hire 25,000 Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and implementing an E-Verify program to make sure employers are not hiring illegal immigrants, per the Daily Caller.
Haley proposed defunding sanctuary cities and bringing back the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, which requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until they have received a court date.
She’d also like to keep in place Title 42, the COVID-19 era policy that allowed American officials to quickly expel hundreds of thousands of migrants to stop the spread of the pandemic.
CALL IT A CRISIS, JOE
Haley blamed President Joe Biden for failing to take steps to secure the border.
“Biden needs to open his mouth and call this a crisis, he needs to let his cabinet agencies say that it’s a crisis and they need to start dealing with it and Congress needs to get into a room to fix it,” she said.
Prior to the press conference, Haley had harsher words for the president during an interview with Fox News.
“What I’d say to President Biden is shame on you. Shame on you because you are putting every single American at risk,” she said to host Harris Faulkner. “This is a national security threat … this is your job, your job is to protect the American people. You’re not doing it, you don’t deserve to be president.”
Joe Biden, shame on you for putting every American at risk.
Close the border. Protect our families. Defend law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/1ye6znOsJJ
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) April 3, 2023
There were over 2.3 million encounters at the southern border in fiscal year 2022.
“This should be a top priority for anybody running for president. If it’s not a top priority for our current president, it will be a top priority when I’m president,” Haley said.