Texas Senator Ted Cruz said Friday that Democrats, specifically President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, have shown complacency when it comes to crimes committed by illegal immigrants in the United States.
Cruz was speaking on his podcast “Verdict: With Ted Cruz” on which he repeated Republican claims that migrants were responsible for a wave of crime across the country.
The Republican senator opened his show by blasting Harris for visiting Texas this week to campaign with members of the teachers union, without mentioning or visiting the southern border.
“She never ever, ever goes to the border in her entire tenure as vice president. She’s been to the border once. She went to El Paso for like 12 minutes, they cleaned it up so she didn’t see illegal immigrants and then she left. She did not go to the Rio Grande Valley. She did not go to Eagle Pass. She did not go to Del Rio. Instead, she is utterly awol,” Cruz said. “She is nowhere to be found.”
He then pointed to the cases of Rachel Morin — who was raped and murdered in Maryland – and Jocelyn Nungaray — a 12-year-old girl sexually assaulted and killed in Houston — as examples to back his assertion that Harris had not acted to secure the border. Both of those victims were allegedly killed by people who were in the country illegally.
“It sounds harsh to say she has no concern about that, but it is the only conclusion you can reach, because if she did care about them, this administration would change their policies,” Cruz said. “They would stop releasing illegal immigrants.”
Cruz also said Harris was not concerned about the vulnerable children and adults who die while trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
Republican leaders like Texas Governor Greg Abbott have made the border more dangerous to cross in places by including walls of razor wire.
The comments from Cruz, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, is more evidence that the GOP intends to tie Harris to the border and the surge of unauthorized immigration, given her work under the Biden administration addressing the “root causes” of migration out of Central and Latin America. Immigration has become even more of a key issue in this year’s presidential election following Biden’s withdrawal and his endorsement of Harris as the Democratic nominee.
As some polls have shown a narrowing gap between Harris and Trump, Republicans have gone on the attack against Harris, saying she had failed in her role as ” border czar.”
Republicans have homed in on the numbers of immigrants crossing into Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona, and have placed the blame squarely on Harris (the responsibility of securing the border falls under the Department of Homeland Security).
Cruz also focused on the crimes committed by illegal immigrants in his speech at the Republican National Convention.
“The risk every single day of terrorists coming across the southern border goes up and up and up,” Cruz said on his podcast. “We will face, tragically, another major terrorist attack.
“It is all but inevitable given the Biden administration’s weakness number one and open borders number two, and that is front and center.
“There is a reason that this election is very much about safety and security, and I think at the end of the day, that’s why Donald Trump will be reelected because people want their families to be safe.”
Cruz’s comments came after Gov. Abbott also criticized Harris for visiting Texas this week without making a stop along the border.
Harris’ campaign responded to the GOP’s criticisms of her border record earlier this week, telling Newsweek that Donald Trump’s only plan was “ripping mothers from their children”.
“He tanked the toughest bipartisan border security deal in a generation because for Donald Trump, this has never been about actually securing the border – it’s always about himself,” Harris campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz told Newsweek.
The Democrat National Committee (DNC) platform for 2024, which still references a second term for President Biden, promises Congressional action through legislation to “secure the border, reform the asylum system, expand legal immigration”, as well as keeping families together.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
