Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott visited the southern border on Friday as part of his presidential campaign.
Scott is the third GOP contender to make a trip to the southern border, which has become a common thread running through the party’s campaigns for federal office recently. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have both recently made border visits.
The senator used his visit to express support for building a wall and to attack President Joe Biden, claiming that the Biden administration’s immigration policies led to a surge in illegal border crossings and increased the flow of fentanyl into the country.
“I was at the border in 2019. And the thing that’s changed the most is Joe Biden coming into office has allowed for more than 6 million folks across our border illegally, and perhaps equally as important as the 70,000 Americans who have lost their lives to fentanyl,” Scott said.
When asked whether former President Donald Trump’s latest indictment and ongoing legal troubles will keep immigration at the top of the 2024 campaign, Scott dodged the question and instead blasted the Department of Justice.
“My perspective is that the DOJ continues to weaponize their power against political opponents,” he said. “It seems like they spend a lot of time protecting Hunter Biden and Democrats and a lot of time hunting Republicans.”
The U.S. has been seeing massive migrant numbers since President Joe Biden announced last year that he would be lifting “Title 42,” a controversial border policy implemented by former President Donald Trump back in March 2020 that allowed the border agency to turn migrants away.
Since then, nearly 2.4 million migrants were detained at the border for the fiscal year ending in September, surpassing the already-historic number of 1.7 million migrant detainees in 2021. The numbers are likely to increase now that “Title 42” has been lifted.
Scott proposed spending $10 billion to finish construction of a border wall with improved technological surveillance. He also called for funds from the Democrats’ “Inflation Reduction Act” to be used to hire more Customs and Border Patrol agents.
The presidential hopeful also touted the legislation he sponsored that would punish drug dealers and Chinese fentanyl suppliers.
