Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making the growing border crisis a top 2024 campaign issue, calling it an “existential threat to our country.”
In his second tour of the border and visit with local authorities, Kennedy ripped President Joe Biden’s “pettiness” in reversing former President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
He also used his visit to unveil a petition demanding that the president finally start paying attention to the crisis and close the border to illegal crossings.
“The humanitarian crisis at the border and the influx that’s coming in is an existential threat to our country and our values,” he told a roundtable on Feb. 6, according to a video his campaign just released.
In moving in on Trump’s signature topic, Kennedy is boosting the border as a way to gain support for his insurgent campaign. In recent polls, Kennedy has been gaining by taking support from Biden and helping to widen Trump’s lead over the president.
In the video, Kennedy appeared surprised at the degree of the crisis on the Arizona-Mexico border. He was given a tour of the wall by Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, who said it was begun by former President Barack Obama, supercharged by Trump, and then stopped by Biden. He said that most of the wall material purchased under Trump had been sold off as scrap.
Kennedy said, “Do you think it’s just pettiness that he just said anything Trump wanted is bad?” Willcox, Arizona, Police Chief Dale Hadfield agreed and added, “Everything that President Biden wants is bad too.”
Dannels, who heads the National Sheriffs’ Association border committee, said the administration has not engaged local law enforcement on the crisis. He recalled giving Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas a “16-point action plan” for the border that was ignored. Months later, when he asked Mayorkas about it, he said the secretary told him, “Did you give me something, sheriff?”
The National Sheriffs’ Association has been raising the problem at the border for years with successive administrations. It had good relations with the Trump White House, and its members were often guests at border events hosted by the president.
Under Biden, however, the relationship has grown cold. But the sheriffs continue to press Washington for support.
In the latest effort, the group shared a new national survey with Secrets that showed 72% believe the open border is a national security threat and want it secured.
The sheriffs opposed the recent comprehensive border bill that the Senate and House killed. They said it focused on speeding immigrants through the system, not securing the border first.
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The survey also found that huge majorities of the nation believe that Mexico’s cooperation would be critical to success.
“An overwhelming majority, 83%, believe that Mexico must cooperate to ease human suffering on the southern border. Most Americans share this belief across all 36 demographic groups analyzed in the NSA/TIPP Poll,” the analysis read.
