(The Center Square) – Former President Donald Trump visited Arizona for the fourth time during this campaign, urging Arizonans to vote as the election draws nearer.
On Thursday, Trump spent most of the speech in Tempe discussing the Southern border, condemning Vice President Kamala Harris for her handling of the border.
“Over the last four years, Kamala Harris has orchestrated the most egregious betrayal that any leader in American history has inflicted upon our people,” Trump said. “Kamala’s migrant invasion given to us by gross incompetence disqualifies her from even thinking about running for president.”
Trump blamed Harris for the drug cartels crossing the Southern border, saying she “threw open the gates to criminals.”
Harris was appointed by President Joe Biden to discover root causes of the surge of immigration crossing the southern border and has said that she oversaw legislation to crack down on the border – the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act. The legislation failed in the Senate after Trump spoke out against it. The $118 billion would have expanded detention facilities and hired more border control agents, asylum officers and immigration judges. Republicans rejected the measure, saying it would have fast-tracked mass amnesty.
During his speech, Trump brought up former San Diego Border Patrol Chief Aaron Heitke to discuss his views on the state of the border over the past four years.
“I’ve never seen anything worse than the last four years of the current administration,” Heitke said. “It’s been nonstop, the agents’ morale has been destroyed, it’s been really difficult to watch. We have a continuous threat, a serious threat at the border that needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed now.”
Trump said that his plan, if elected, is to initiate a mass deportation of every migrant that has illegally crossed the border.
“Nov. 5, 2024, is going to be called liberation day in America,” Trump said. “I will save every town that’s been invaded and conquered by these criminals.”
Most notably, he said that he would enact the Aliens Enemy Act of 1798. This law would give the president the power to deport, arrest or relocate any individual over 14-years-old who are from “foreign enemies.”
Additionally, he said that he would end catch and release, outlaw sanctuary cities, and enact the death penalty for any migrant who kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.
Later in his speech, Trump said that he believes both the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine wars would not have happened if President Joe Biden had not pulled American troops out of Afghanistan so abruptly. Trump went so far as to say that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that Ukraine was “the apple of his eye,” but he would not have invaded without the U.S.’s handling of the war in Afghanistan.
Additionally, Trump said that when he was president, he had been in conversation with the leader of the Taliban about removing American troops and that he had a plan to do it safely and avoid deaths.
He spoke about his usual campaign proposals, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay, and social security, increasing fracking and drilling, and building a “massive missile defense field in America.”
Other promises he made was that he would “free the reporters” from the Left and land an American astronaut on Mars, to which he said, “Thank you, Elon Musk.”
“We will be a free and proud nation once again,” Trump said. “We will never give in, we will never back down, and we will never surrender.”
