(Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris was criticized by the Border Patrol Union on Friday as she prepared to make her first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee and only her second visit since becoming the official White House border czar.
NEW: Border Patrol union statement to @FoxNews re: VP Kamala Harris’ border visit in AZ today – her first visit to the southern border since June 2021 when she went to El Paso, TX.
“After years of not just ignoring the problem, but helping create it, Vice President Kamala…
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 27, 2024
“After years of not just ignoring the problem, but helping create it, Vice President Kamala Harris is finally headed down to the border,” said Art Del Cueto, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council.
“This is nothing more than for her to check the box, but what it is in reality is a slap in the face towards the men and women that put their lives on the line every day, and also a slap in the face to the American public,” he continued. “Where has she been?”
She is scheduled to appear in Douglas, Arizona, as former President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans pound Harris over the Biden administration’s poor record on illegal immigration and fault the vice president for spending little time visiting the border during her time in the White House.
Immigration and border security are top issues in Arizona, the only battleground state that borders Mexico and one that contended with a record influx of asylum seekers last year.
On Thursday, Trump stated “anything [Harris] says tomorrow, you know is a fraud because she was the worst in history at protecting our country. So she’ll try and make herself look a little bit better. But it’s not possible.”
A day earlier, at a rally in North Carolina, Trump told voters that “when Kamala speaks about the border, her credibility is less than zero.”
The Trump campaign has also run TV ads deriding the vice president as a failed “border czar.”
“Under Harris, over 10 million illegally here,” said one spot.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
