Los Angeles (USA), Sep 27 (EFE).- The candidates for the US Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential elections this Wednesday displayed a firm policy on the southern border and reproached the current president, Joe Biden, for laxity in compliance with the law.
“Biden waved the green flag. He told everyone to come. We’ve seen six million people cross the border (illegally). Fentanyl has killed more Americans than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined,” said the former ambassador. of the United States to the UN Nikki Haley.
His criticism was launched in the second debate of the Republican formation, which precedes the one held in August in Milwaukee and will be followed by another in Miami in November.
Participating on this occasion were “former US Vice President Mike Pence; Florida Governor Ron DeSantis; businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Haley. Likewise, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota.
Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas, who did participate in the first meeting, was left at the doors, while former President Donald Trump counter-scheduled a parallel event in Detroit to talk about the automotive sector strike.
“As commander in chief, I am going to use the Army to go after the Mexican drug cartels. They are killing our people. Are we going to sit back and allow this to happen? I am not going to do it. I guarantee that from my “I’m going to declare this a national emergency on my first day as president,” DeSantis said.
For Ramaswamy, building the wall “is not enough”: “We must use our military to seal the Swiss cheese that is the southern border.”
Pence relied on his experience in the Administration to address the issue. “Despite what is said, we reduced illegal immigration by 90%. And as president of the United States I will do it again. (…) A nation without borders is not a nation. And we have to secure the southern border” , he stressed.
For his part, Christie criticized the passivity of the current Democratic Administration.
“We must address this as the law enforcement problem that it is. Laws are being broken every day at our southern border. And Joe Biden and his team are doing nothing to enforce them,” he said.
The first debate took place in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and this time the setting chosen was the emblematic Ronald Reagan presidential library in California. The venue, located in Simi Valley, has hosted other conservative primary debates in the past, such as in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
