Former President Trump will visit the U.S. southern border in Cochise County, Arizona, this Thursday, amid a broken border resulting in hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into the country, and a drug crisis fueled by fentanyl pushed by drug cartels.
Trump’s campaign announced his visit on Sunday, blaming Vice President Kamala Harris, who was referred to as “border Czar Kamala Harris,” for the “country’s worst border crisis.”
“Despite nearly 10 million immigrant crossings in the last three and a half years, at least 99 individuals on the terrorist watch list being released into our country, deadly drugs like fentanyl being peddled in by cartels and poisoning American communities, and a huge increase in crime and chaos caused by illegal immigrants – there is no end in sight for Kamala Harris’ border crisis,” the announcement read. “Our country continues to witness more and more violent and deadly crimes committed by illegal immigrants.”
Trump’s campaign then referred to Americans like Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley and Rachel Morin, who were all allegedly killed by illegal immigrants.
Two Venezuelan nationals – 21-year-old Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and 26-year-old Franklin Jose Peña Ramos – have been charged with capital murder in connection with the death of 12-year-old Nungaray’s death. The two men crossed illegally into the U.S. earlier this year, and are accused of strangling the pre-teen to death in June.
Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan illegal immigrant, was charged with 22-year-old Riley’s murder. Ibarra entered the U.S. through El Paso, Texas, in 2022 and was freed on border parole. He initially lived in New York City, where he was arrested for endangering a child prior to his move to Athens, Georgia.
Ibarra has been charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another in connection to Riley’s murder.
The El Salvadoran national responsible for Morin’s death, 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, was also in the country illegally, and according to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was caught by Border Patrol three times within a matter of days in January and February 2023 and kicked back to Mexico under Title 42 each time. He then successfully entered the U.S. as a gotaway, meaning he entered without being inspected, admitted or paroled by a U.S. immigration officer, in February 2023 near El Paso, Texas.
Trump’s campaign also pointed to the fentanyl crisis, saying over half of the total fentanyl pills entering the country come through the Arizona border.
“In Maricopa County, more than three people die every day on average due to fentanyl,” the announcement read. “President Donald J. Trump knows that the people of Arizona and the rest of the country cannot take another four years of a missing-in-action border Czar who refuses to act to secure our border and protect our country.”
Despite Trump’s statements critical of Harris’s handling of the border, Arizona border Mayor Ken Budge of Brisbee claims Harris is the only candidate with a record of “standing up for Arizona border communities” like his, and can be trusted to support and fix the issue.
“It’s a stark contrast from Donald Trump and JD Vance, who do not want solutions and worked to kill the toughest and fairest border security deal in decades earlier this year, leaving Arizonans out to dry,” Budge said. “The truth is, Trump and Vance only want to campaign off of an issue, they fixed nothing while in office. Voters can tell the difference between leaders like Vice President Harris who are fighting for us and MAGA extremists who never deliver and just want to force mass deportation, hurting our communities.”
Budge accused Trump of killing the “toughest and fairest bill in a generation to secure the border,” to help himself politically, and even said “blame it on me” after the bill was endorsed by the Border Patrol.
“Reasonable Republicans said it was ‘appalling,’ the ‘height of stupidity,’ ‘immoral,’ and ‘tragic’ that Trump stopped common sense solutions to secure the border,” Budge alleged.
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