Former Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Arizona on Monday to see the U.S.-Mexico border as the nation’s migrant crisis continues to balloon at record rates.
Pence will be joined by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a personal friend and political ally who sits on the board of the former vice president’s political advocacy group, as well as Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, who will show the two Republicans a section of the border where the barrier wall ends. Ducey’s office said in a statement that Pence was visiting a state at the “forefront of national security and humanitarian crisis at the border,” noting how more fentanyl was seized in southern Arizona last year than the previous two combined.
DHS CONSIDERS PAYING TO TRANSPORT MIGRANTS FROM BORDER TO DALLAS, HOUSTON, LOS ANGELES
After stopping by the border, the former vice president will deliver a speech to an invite-only audience at the Arizona Commerce Authority in Phoenix. He is expected to focus his remarks heavily on the migrant crisis and make reference to his morning border visit.
A spokeswoman for Dannels said in a statement that the sheriff was “honored to have the Governor and Vice President Pence come to our county to get a first-hand look at challenges we currently face along the southwest border. We welcome the attention to shine a light on the daily efforts being undertaken by our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to keep our citizens safe.”
Pence, who is widely reported to be considering a 2024 presidential bid, and Ducey have both been outspoken critics of President Joe Biden’s handling of immigration.
The Biden administration’s undoing of former President Donald Trump’s border policies prompted a flood of Central American and Mexican migrants to reach the southern border. Central Americans looking for refuge from the Northern Triangle countries — Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras — have often been manipulated by human smuggling operations, which publicized those policy moves to push a narrative that the border was open.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The administration said in early May that it would lift Title 42, first implemented under Trump in March 2020, on May 23 in the wake of improving pandemic-related conditions. That decision was met with condemnation on both sides of the aisle, and a federal judge in Louisiana ruled on May 20 that the administration could not lift the COVID-19-era order, which allowed authorities to expel migrants without first hearing asylum claims in the name of public health.
Biden immigration officials, led by the Department of Homeland Security, are currently moving forward with a plan to begin transporting apprehended migrants to U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, Dallas, and Houston in an effort to provide aid to overwhelmed border towns.
