Vance hits Harris on 'terrible and idiotic' immigration policies during border trip

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, excoriated Vice President Kamala Harris and the Biden administration this week over its handling of immigration during a trip to the southern  border.

Vance on Thursday visited Cochise County, Ariz., where he toured the southern border.

"They started their administration, Kamala Harris came into office making promises and she kept those promises to open the American southern border," Vance said. "They stopped deportations on day one. They stopped construction of the border wall on day one. We see the border wall sitting here ready to be completed behind us and that can't happen because of Kamala Harris's administration."

"They reinstated catch-and-release and they stopped Remain-in-Mexico so all of these asylum claimants who come to our border, they can now get released into our country because they are not forced to stay in Mexico while we adjudicate their asylum claims," he went on. "And we have to remember that as terrible and idiotic as these policies were, they cause real human beings to suffer."

He then went on to described the fentanyl trafficking situation and to address the human impact of drug overdoses. Vance warned that many children would lose their parents "because of what Kamala Harris has unleashed at this border."

WATCH: Senator @JDVance TORCHES Border Czar Kamala Harris 🔥

"They stopped deportations on Day One. They stopped construction of the border wall on Day One...They reinstated catch-and-release and they stopped Remain-in-Mexico...these policies cause real human beings to suffer." pic.twitter.com/gwc2aljHXJ

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 1, 2024

Republicans have sought to pin the border situation on Harris, whom Biden appointed as "border czar" in 2021. Harris's team has emphasized that her role was to address the root causes of immigration from Latin American nations.