During a Thursday press call organized by former President Donald Trump’s election campaign, Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp.) joined James Tignanelli, president of the Police Officers Association of Michigan and Republican sheriffs from counties across the state in criticizing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s border policies.
Thursday’s call comes on the heels of Trump’s Tuesday visit to Howell, where he continued to attack Democrats on crime and immigration, despite preliminary data from the Major Cities Chiefs Association showcasing a 6% decrease in violent crime in the first half of 2024, with the FBI reporting “historic” declines in violent crime in the first quarter of the year.
Speakers echoed Trump’s criticisms of Harris’s support for immigration reforms, with Trump falsely claiming Harris supports “mass amnesty and citizenship” for “all illegals.”
Nesbitt also criticized Democratic majority in the Legislature, blaming the leadership for not holding hearings on Republican bills that would crack down on undocumented immigration in Michigan.
“That’s why, now more than ever, we need President Trump to secure the border,” Nesbitt said, pointing to Trump’s pledge to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in American history.
While members of law enforcement presented examples of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in their communities, they could not provide statistics on the percentage of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in Michigan, with Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy saying there is not a mechanism for capturing that data within the state.
Republicans have repeatedly tied undocumented immigrants to rising crime, however an investigation from the Marshall Project found no link between undocumented immigrants and increased crime. Another study published by Oxford Economic Papers found undocumented immigrants were 33% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S. natives.
Law enforcement officials on the call also pointed to concerns of fentanyl and drug trafficking in their communities, with Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole pointing to a recent case where his department recovered nearly 60 grams of pure fentanyl.
“Investigators tell us that came directly from our southern border, we also learned that that was enough fentanyl to kill every resident in our community, and when you think about losing an entire county to fentanyl, it’s a pretty significant issue,” Cole said.
“I would submit to you that our southern border is a three legged stool for law enforcement. It’s a national security threat. It is a humanitarian crisis and it’s a criminal enterprise,” Cole said, pointing to previous comments from FBI Director Christopher Wray, with Wray saying there was “no doubt” dangerous individuals had entered the country through the southern border.
While fentanyl is entering the country through Mexico, 90% of illicit fentanyl is smuggled is seized at legal ports of entry, with more than being brought in by U.S. citizens who are legally authorized to cross the border, according to a report from NPR.
In an email to the Advance Harris’s campaign criticized Trump for pressuring lawmakers to kill the Senate’s bipartisan border deal, which would have added more than 1,500 new Customs and Border Protection personnel, funded the installation of 100 cutting-edge inspection machines to help detect fentanyl, and established an emergency authority allowing the President and Secretary of Homeland Security to temporarily prohibit individuals from seeking asylum when the Southwest Border is overwhelmed, with limited exceptions.
“Whether as a district attorney, attorney general, United States senator, or vice president, Kamala Harris has never been scared to take on crime to keep communities safe, dedicating resources to stem the flow of dangerous drugs and human trafficking,” Harris spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement.
“On the other side, Donald Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans have shown they’re completely uninterested in delivering solutions, blocking the strongest set of reforms to secure the border in decades simply for politics. There’s only one candidate in this race who will fight for bipartisan solutions to fix the border, and that’s Vice President Harris,” Moussa said.
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