Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Monday accused President Biden of a “dereliction of duty” for failing to confront the chaos on the U.S.-Mexico border and vowed to restore Trump-era policies credited with slowing illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs crossing into the country.
Mrs. Haley is the first of the 2024 GOP presidential contenders to make the trip to the southern border, giving her an opportunity to put her imprint on a debate that animates GOP primary voters and to wrestle attention away from former President Donald Trump.
“This is a dereliction of duty by President Biden,” Mrs. Haley said during her swing through south Texas, where she was joined by Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales. She met with ranchers and local law enforcement officials. “This is a crisis regardless of what anybody says,” Mrs. Haley said.
Mrs. Haley said if elected she will push to mandate businesses use the E-Verify program, the government’s database for screening out illegal immigrant workers.
She said she will put 25,000 more Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on the ground, defund sanctuary cities, and revive the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” border policy. She also said she would keep the Title 42 pandemic border expulsion policy in place and replace the Biden administration’s “catch-and-release” policy with “catch and deport.”
“What I would say to President Biden is shame on you. Shame on you because you are putting every single American at risk,” Mrs. Haley said during an appearance on Fox News. “This is a national security threat.”
“This is your job. Your job is to protect the American people. You are not doing it. You don’t deserve to be president,” she said.
A former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina, Mrs. Haley is fighting to stay relevant in a race dominated by coverage of Mr. Trump.
Indeed, the political universe on Monday continued to track Mr. Trump’s movements as he made his way from Florida to New York where he is slated to be arraigned on criminal charges on Tuesday.
For her part, Mrs. Haley came to Mr. Trump’s defense, saying Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is out for “political revenge,” and said all the drama is taking attention away from serious issues such as immigration that are hurting communities and lives.
“We should be talking about how now every state is now a border state,” Mrs. Haley said. “This is what we need to be talking about and this is where the focus needs to be because this is a national security threat to every American family.”
Mr. Biden took office on a promise of a more lenient approach to immigration.
He canceled a number of the Trump policies, including the “Remain in Mexico” program and agreements with Central American countries that had largely secured the border by 2020.
Mr. Biden’s pivot resulted in a predictable and catastrophic surge of migrants, shattering all previous records and overwhelming Homeland Security.
Now eyeing a reelection bid, Mr. Biden in recent weeks has started creeping back toward some of the get-tough Trump policies he once eschewed.
The GOP takeover of the House also has made it hard for Mr. Biden to downplay the mess. Some Republicans are calling for the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to be impeached over his handling of the mess.
The issue is already front and center in the GOP nomination race.
At his first campaign rally a week ago, Mr. Trump said his administration fought against “the open border fanatics.” He said if given another opportunity to serve in the White House, he “will immediately end the invasion of our southern border.”
“Never forget the very same people who are always after me are the ones throwing open your borders to millions and millions of illegal aliens,” Mr. Trump told supporters in Waco last week. “Nobody suffers more than this state.”
Mrs. Haley said it is long past time for Mr. Biden and Congress to act.
“This is not rocket science,” she said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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