Vance touts deportations to deal with housing crisis

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance on Wednesday insisted that deporting millions of illegal immigrants would help to address the cost of housing in the United States.

"It goes back to the border," he said at a rally in Traverse City, Mich. "And why does it go back to the border? Because every economist and every person with an ounce of common sense will tell you that if you bring in millions upon millions of people who are competing with Americans for scarce homes, it's going to shoot the price of housing through the roof."

"So the first thing that you've got to do to make it more affordable to buy a home in this country is to get people who shouldn't be here out of the country in the first place. And that'll create a lot of space," he insisted.

Vance acknowledged such a measure "is not the whole solution" and that building homes would address the other half of the issue.

"We, unfortunately have made it so hard on construction workers and construction business to build housing in the United States of America," he lamented. "[H]ere, the two things that I really focus on when I when I criticize the regulatory regime of Kamala Harris, it's number one, they're shutting down pipelines, they're shutting down oil fields, they're shutting down natural gas rigs, they're shutting down the American energy sector. That's a disaster. You got to stop the regulations there, and by the way, that will also lower the cost of housing."

"But the second thing you got to do is stop making it so hard to build things," he went on.