During a trip along the southern Texas border, Nikki Haley insisted that Joe Biden is the sole person to blame for the migration crisis – and said she has given up on Vice President Kamala Harris ever visiting the border.
The Republican presidential hopeful and former ambassador told DailyMail.com on Monday that it’s up to Biden to fire Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and replace him with someone that can do the job more effectively.
Joining Haley on her five-stop trip at the southern border was Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), representing the greater San Antonio area which shares a border with Mexico. He has issued an open invitation to all presidential candidates to tour the region.
2024 Republican presidential nomination candidate and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley and Rep. Tony Gonzales meet with local officials, land owners and residents during a tour of rain tracks in Hondo, Texas, U.S., April 3, 2023.
‘We have one president, and his job is to keep Americans safe,’ Haley told DailyMail.com at the final stop of her trip in Eagle Pass, Texas. ‘And all we know is that he’s refusing to look at the border situation because he hopes it goes away.’
‘So now he’s got Mayorkas – he’s been given the trouble of dealing with this, and he’s refused to call it a crisis. So how do the American people have any confidence in a president who refuses to see a border problem and a secretary who refuses to see it as a crisis?’ Haley added.
Haley made a few stops in Texas, including Del Rio and Eagle Pass, where she met with Border Patrol agents, National Guard soldiers, ranchers, and residents who live in fear daily.
She also went to a shoe factory on the U.S. side of the border where many legal immigrants work.
Now, she says it’s time for Biden to see the ‘real’ border towns after finally making his first trip to the border, but not surveying some of the realities the communities are facing from the crisis.
‘You look at these families, the number one thing that they said is, ‘People need to not expect us just to live like this,’ Haley said.
Migrants are detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents, after crossing the Rio Bravo river to turn themselves in to request for asylum in El Paso, Texas, U.S., as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico March 29, 2023.
Haley holds President Joe Biden responsible for the border crisis
Migrants gather at a crossing into El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Republicans are trying to impeach U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for failure to do his job of protecting the border.
Haley isn’t impressed with Vice President Kamala Harris’ efforts to fix the border crisis
‘So my big question is, when is Biden coming to the border? We’ve given up on Kamala.’
VP Harris was made ‘border czar’ by Biden, but has been repeatedly criticized for failing to act in her capacity in that role.
The administration, however, has said that her job was always to address the root problem that led to migration in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – and not to fix the crisis when it comes to the border.
Haley detailed her plan to address the crisis during a press conference in her final stop of the day with the backdrop of razor wire and shipping containers blocking the Rio Grande River crossing.
The Republican presidential candidate reiterated her proposed border policies, including making E-Verify mandatory so all U.S. businesses can ensure their employees have valid citizenship status to work in America. Other cornerstones of her proposed policies are ending ‘catch-and-release’ and designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
She said that current federal-level policies prove that the Biden ‘administration is inept and not responsible and putting the American people at risk.’
‘And I would ask the Democrats, is this we are going to put back up for President next year?’ the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations question. ‘Because you’re basically telling America: ‘Make sure you live with this illegal immigration problem because this President is not doing anything to change it, and the Democratic Party is going right alongside him.’
Haley is one of four Republicans already in what is expected to be a crowded GOP primary race. Her competitors include her former boss and ex-President Donald Trump, biotech multimillionaire Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is the latest to enter the race after saying on Sunday that he decided to make a bid.
So far, Haley has made the border crisis one of her campaign’s top priorities, taking a page out of Trump’s 2016 playbook.
When asked if she would personally take addressing the border crisis into her hands if she were elected president, Haley didn’t hesitate.
‘When you’re the person at the top, everything falls under you,’ she told DailyMaill.com. ‘Your job is to make sure you fix every problem, every crisis – and if your secretary can’t do it, you replace your secretary and get one that can.’
‘The buck stops with Biden, and that’s been shown not to be working.’
