Walz, Vance clash over immigration, fentanyl at VP debate
The issue of illegal immigration to the United States via Mexico was a significant point of contention between U.S. Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz during their vice presidential debate in New York on Tuesday night.
CBS News journalist Margaret Brennan told Vance, the Republican Partyβs nominee for vice president, and Walz, the Democratic Partyβs VP pick, that βthe crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border consistently ranks as one of the top issues for American voters.β
She specifically asked Vance about Donald Trumpβs βmass deportation planβ for undocumented migrants, but before the 40-year-old senator responded to that question, he chose to go on the attack.
Vance blames Harris for βhistoric immigration crisisβΒ
βBefore we talk about deportations, we have to stop the bleeding,β Vance said.
βWe have a historic immigration crisis because Kamala Harris started [it] and said that she wanted to undo all of Donald Trumpβs border policies. Ninety-four executive orders suspending deportations, decriminalizing illegal aliens, massively increasing the asylum fraud that exists in our system β that has opened the floodgates,β he said.
βAnd what itβs meant is that a lot of fentanyl is coming into our country.β
Vance asserted that the U.S. government needs to βre-implement Donald Trumpβs border policies, build the wall [and] re-implement deportations.β
βAnd that gets me to your point, Margaret, about what do we actually do? So weβve got 20, 25 million illegal aliens who are here in the country. What do we do with them? I think the first thing that we do is we start with the criminal migrants,β he said.
βAbout a million of those people have committed some form of crime in addition to crossing the border illegally. I think you start with deportations on those folks, and then I think you make it harder for illegal aliens to undercut the wages of American workers,β Vance said.
Walz defends the US vice president
The 60-year-old Minnesota governor began his remarks on the immigration βcrisisβ by rejecting Vanceβs assertion that some migrant children in the United States βhave been used as drug trafficking mules.β
βThe drug mule [claim] is not true,β Walz said.
Vance subsequently said that he was in fact referring to Mexican drug cartelsβ use of children as drug mules.
Walz, meanwhile, pointed out that Harris served as attorney general of California before entering federal politics.
He asserted that she is the only person contesting the Nov. 5 presidential election βwho prosecuted transnational gangs for human trafficking and drug interventions.β
The Democratic Party VP nominee went on to accuse Trump of thwarting what he described as βthe fairest and the toughest bill on immigration that this nationβs seen,β legislation considered by the U.S. Congress earlier this year.
βIt was crafted by a conservative senator from Oklahoma, James Lankford. β¦ The Border Patrol said, βthis is what we need.β β¦ Fifteen hundred new border agents, detection for drugs. β¦ Just what America wants. But as soon as it was getting ready to pass and actually tackle this [crisis] Donald Trump said βNoβ β told [Republicans] to vote against it because it gives him a campaign issue,β Walz said.
Walz: βMexico didnβt pay a dimeβ for border wallΒ
Walz also took aim at Trump for what he characterized as the former presidentβs failure to fulfill his promises on immigration-related issues.
βDonald Trump had four years. He had four years to do this. And he promised you, America, how easy it would be. Iβll build you a big, beautiful wall and Mexico will pay for it. Less than 2% of that wall got built and Mexico didnβt pay a dime,β he said.
βBut here we are again, nine years after he came down that escalator, dehumanizing people and telling them what he was going to do. As far as a deportation plan, at one point, Senator Vance said it was so unworkable as to be laughable. So thatβs where weβre at.β
Vance: Trump will solve the immigration crisis
Vanceβs attacks on Harris over immigration were relentless.
βThe only thing that β¦ [Harris] did when she became the vice President, when she became the appointed border czar, was to undo 94 Donald Trump executive actions that opened the border,β said Vance, a senator for Ohio, former corporate lawyer and author of a bestselling memoir about βa family [his] and a culture in crisis.β
βThis problem is leading to massive problems in the United States of America. Parents who canβt afford health care, schools that are overwhelmed. Itβs got to stop, and it will when Donald Trump is president again,β he said.
Walz was critical of the practice of βblaming migrants for everythingβ and continued to advocate the approval of the immigration bill that βlaw enforcement β¦ asked for.β
Vance claims that βillegal gunsβ are entering the US from Mexico
CBS Newsβ Norah OβDonnell asked the VP nominees whether holding parents responsible for gun violence committed by their underage children βcould curb mass shootings.β
During his response, Vance said that βthe gross majorityβ of gun violence in the United States βis committed with illegally obtained firearms.β
βAnd while weβre on that topic, we know that thanks to Kamala Harrisβs open border, weβve seen a massive influx in the number of illegal guns run by the Mexican drug cartel,β he said
Journalists JosΓ© DΓaz BriseΓ±o and Ioan Grillo took to the X social media platform to respond to Vanceβs claim.
βIn a sort of tongue twister, J.D. Vance ends up suggesting that Mexican cartels are the source of firearms in the U.S. when in reality it is American gun stores that sell them. We donβt have gun shops in Mexico,β wrote DΓaz, a U.S.-based correspondent for the Reforma newspaper.
βI have no bone in this U.S. election and a lot of concern about Mexican drug cartels that I have been reporting on for two decades,β wrote Grillo.
βBut J.D. Vance β cartels donβt smuggle guns into the United States. The U.S. gun market supplies Mexican cartels. I wrote this book about it,β he added, referring to his 2021 book βBlood Gun Money.β
Closing statementsΒ Β
In his closing statement, Walz said he was βas surprised as anybodyβ about the βcoalition that Kamala Harris has built.β
βFrom Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney to Taylor Swift and a whole bunch of folks in between there. And they donβt all agree on everything, but they are truly optimistic people. They believe in a positive future of this country. And one where our politics can be better than it is,β he said.
ββ¦ Kamala Harris is bringing us a new way forward. Sheβs bringing us a politics of joy. Sheβs bringing real solutions for the middle class. And sheβs centering you at the heart of that,β Walz said.
In his final remarks, Vance once again blamed Harris for the entry to the U.S. of large quantities of illegal fentanyl β a drug made and trafficked by Mexican drug cartels.
βI believe that whether youβre rich or poor you ought to be able to afford to buy a house. You ought to be able to live in safe neighborhoods. You ought to not have your communities flooded with fentanyl,β he said.
βAnd that, too, has gotten harder with Kamala, because of Kamala Harrisβs policies,β Vance said.
βNow, Iβve been in politics long enough to do what Kamala Harris does when she stands before the American people and says that on day one sheβs going to work on all these challenges I just listed. Sheβs been the Vice President for three and a half years. Day one was 1,400 days ago. And her policies have made these problems worse,β he said.
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Source: Mexico News Daily