(PatriotWise.com) — Last Friday, Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott took his first trip to the southern border since announcing his campaign, visiting Yuma, Arizona, where he met with law enforcement officials, community leaders, and farm workers to discuss the ongoing border crisis, NBC News reported.
Scott is the third 2024 Republican candidate to visit the border, which has become a common campaign stop for federal elections in recent years. GOP candidates Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley have also visited the border in recent months.
The South Carolina senator used his visit to Yuma to criticize the Biden administration for its failure to secure the border, which he said has led to an increase in fentanyl coming into the country as well as a surge in illegal border crossings.
Scott noted that he visited the southern border in 2019, and the biggest change since Biden took office is that over 6 million people have crossed into the US illegally and 70,000 Americans have died from fentanyl.
Scott proposed spending $10 billion to complete the border wall and improve technological surveillance. He also suggested that the money in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act to hire additional IRS agents should be reallocated to hire more border agents.
The senator also promoted his bill, the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which would impose sanctions on Chinese fentanyl suppliers and drug cartels, saying that as president he would sign such legislation.
While in Yuma, Scott was asked about Donald Trump’s latest indictment and whether the former president’s ongoing legal problems would prevent the candidates from discussing important issues like immigration during the 2024 campaign.
Rather than answer the question, Scott gave the Republican boilerplate response, accusing the Justice Department of weaponizing its authority to target a political opponent. Scott suggested that the DOJ spends its time “protecting Hunter Biden and Democrats” while “hunting Republicans.”
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