Washington:
Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday in a rare interview with a Republican-leaning news channel that she sparred with a popular host that the U.S. immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed.
“The bottom line is that our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed,” Harris told Fox News anchor Bret Baier in a rare sit-down with the news channel.
“So the Secretary of Homeland Security said there’s 85 percent anxiety,” Baier interjected.
“It’s not over yet. We have an immigration system,” Harris said, trying to continue her answer.
“A rough estimate is that 6 million people have been released into the country,” the Fox News anchor interrupted again.
“And let me finish now. Let’s get to the questions. I promise you, I was starting to answer,” the vice president pleaded.
“Once you took office, your administration quickly reversed many of President Trump’s border policies, most importantly those that required illegal immigrants to be detained with deportation in either the United States or Mexico.” You changed that policy. They were released from custody to await trial. Instead, they included a large number of single men, adult men, who continued to commit heinous crimes. So, looking back, do you regret your decision to end Remain in Mexico at the beginning of your administration?” Mr. Bayer asked again.
“At the beginning of this administration, almost within hours of being sworn in, our first bill was a bill to fix our immigration system,” Harris said as Baier continued to interject.
“At the point where this is your first question, we knew from day one that it was a priority as a nation and for the American people. We were focused on solving problems. So from day one, we’re going to tackle our asylum system, put more resources into it, get more judges, tighten penalties, toughen penalties for illegally crossing the border. We’ve done a lot of things, like what do we need to do, what do we need to do, to address points of entry, points of entry between borders,” she said.
Vice President Harris: Within hours of being sworn in, we introduced legislation to fix our broken immigration system. was not taken up
Fox host: *Interruption*
Vice President Harris: May I finish my response now? I supported the bill by the most conservative member… pic.twitter.com/48dpkPzr6h
— Kamala Headquarters (@KamalaHQ) October 16, 2024
“We worked to support a bipartisan effort that included some of the most conservative members of the U.S. Congress to actually strengthen the border. This border bill would add 1,500 more people to the border. I think that’s why Border Patrol agents supported this bill because it would deploy staff, so it would impact people from all backgrounds and all geographic locations in our country. “We could have stopped the flow of fentanyl into the United States, a scourge that is killing people,” she said.
“Donald Trump found out about the bill and told them to repeal it rather than fix the problem,” Harris claimed.
“This election in 20 days will decide whether we have a president of the United States who is actually more interested in solving the problem, because there was a solution, even if it wasn’t in their political interest to vote. “I guess so,” she said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
