<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1666762350954,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000183-3248-d39e-a1bf-b6e9310b0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1666762350954,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000183-3248-d39e-a1bf-b6e9310b0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_66762329", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1125215"} }); ","_id":"00000184-1280-d2c9-a9e6-b298c2710000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedYUMA, Arizona — Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is putting a renewed focus on immigration in the final weeks of his campaign as he seeks to distance himself from President Joe Biden’s border policies.
“The administration has at times made some decisions that are not helpful to Arizona. I call the president out on it,” Kelly said in an interview with the Washington Examiner ahead of a campaign stop in Yuma, a city near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Kelly has been outspoken about his opposition to Biden’s decision to end Title 42, a pandemic-era policy instituted during the Trump administration that allowed officials to turn away immigrants in the name of public health. The move has curtailed immigrants’ ability to seek asylum at the southern border.
Crossings have surged to the highest level ever recorded in a fiscal year, according to Customs and Border Protection. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey recently ordered gaps in the border wall to be filled with shipping containers near Yuma.
“This is a crisis. Arizonans are sick of it. The federal government needs to do more. I’ve worked to bring more money here, more technology, more money for Border Patrol agents,” Kelly said. “Border security is national security, and when there are 2 million asylum-seekers coming across the border in a year, it’s incredibly difficult for Border Patrol to handle that.”
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The incumbent senator’s campaign dropped a new television ad Tuesday in which an Arizona rancher praises Kelly’s record and his ability to “stand up to his own party” when it comes to securing the border.
Speaking to voters on the patio of a local coffee shop, Kelly touted new funding that will expand and upgrade the San Luis Port of Entry, funded in part by the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure and Jobs Act approved last fall. The project will expand vehicle and pedestrian processing lanes at the land crossing and build new inspection facilities.
“This is something I’ve worked on since my first day in the United States Senate. These ports of entry substantiate a substantial amount of revenue, and the Arizona economy will grow when we upgrade our ports of entry,” Kelly said.
Republicans have made the border a centerpiece of their political message, putting the record-high number of arrivals at the country’s southern border into sharp focus.
Blake Masters, the Trump-backed Senate candidate, accused Kelly and other Democrats of “surrendering our southern border” during a debate this month. He has said he wants to triple the size of the Border Patrol and finish the wall that former President Donald Trump started.
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“I think the correct amount of illegal immigration is zero; that’s what the federal law says,” Masters said. “The problem is that Joe Biden and Mark Kelly are willfully ignoring federal law.”
A recent CBS News poll found immigration ranks third in the state as being “very important,” just behind the economy and inflation.
