While traveling along the southern Texas border, Nikki Haley insisted that Joe Biden is solely responsible for the migration crisis — saying she has given up on Vice President Kamala Harris ever visiting the border.
The Republican presidential nominee and former ambassador told DailyMail.com on Monday that it is up to Biden to fire Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and replace him with someone who can do the job more effectively.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) joined Haley on her five-stop journey to the southern border, representing the greater San Antonio area that shares a border with Mexico. He has sent an open invitation to all presidential candidates to tour the region.
2024 Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and Representative Tony Gonzales meet local officials, landowners, and residents on a tour of rain trails in Hondo, Texas, U.S., April 3, 2023.
“We have one president and it’s his job to keep Americans safe,” Haley told DailyMail.com at the final stop of her journey in Eagle Pass, Texas. “And all we know is he refuses to look at the border situation because he hopes it goes away.”
“So now he’s got Mayorkas – he’s got a hard time dealing with this, and he’s refused to call it a crisis.” How can the American people trust a president who refuses to see a border problem and a secretary who refuses to see it as a crisis? Hayley added.
Haley made a few stops in Texas, including Del Rio and Eagle Pass, where she encountered border patrol agents, National Guard soldiers, farmers and residents who live in fear every day.
She also went to a shoe factory on the US 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 failing to explore any of the realities facing communities through the crisis.
“When you look at these families, the most important thing is that they said, ‘People shouldn’t expect us to just live that way,'” Haley said.
2024 Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and Representative Tony Gonzales meet local officials, landowners, and residents on a tour of rain trails in Hondo, Texas, U.S., April 3, 2023.
Haley holds President Joe Biden responsible for the border crisis
Migrants, mostly from Venezuela, attempt to cross a barrier as they take part in a protest at the Paso del Norte International Bridge to seek asylum in the United States
Migrants gather at a crosswalk in El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Republicans are seeking to impeach US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for failing to fulfill his duty to protect the border.
Haley is unimpressed with Vice President Kamala Harris’ efforts to resolve the border crisis
So my big question is when will Biden get to the border? We’ve given up on Kamala.’
VP Harris was named “border czar” by Biden, but was repeatedly criticized for not acting in her capacity in that role.
However, the government has said its job has always been to address the underlying problem that led to migration in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – not to resolve the crisis at the border.
Haley described her plan to deal with the crisis at a press conference in her last stop of the day against the background of barbed wire and shipping containers blocking the crossing of the Rio Grande River.
The Republican presidential nominee reiterated her proposed border policies, which would include making E-Verify mandatory so all U.S. companies can ensure their employees have valid citizenship to work in America. Other cornerstones of her proposed policy include ending catch-and-release and designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
She said current policies at the federal level prove the Biden administration “is incompetent, irresponsible and endangers the American people.”
“And I’d like to ask the Democrats, are we going to resubmit this next year for the presidency?” the former US Ambassador to the United Nations. “Because you’re basically saying to America, ‘Make sure you live with this problem of illegal immigration, because this president is not doing anything to change it, and the Democratic Party is going to stand with him.’
Haley is one of four Republicans already running in what is expected to be a crowded GOP primary. Her competitors include her former boss and ex-president Donald Trump, biotech multimillionaire Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, who is the last to enter the race after saying on Sunday that he had 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 handle the border crisis 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. “It’s your job to make sure you solve every problem, every crisis — and if your secretary can’t do it, replace your secretary and find one who can.”
“The responsibility lies with Biden, and that doesn’t seem to work.”