Sen. Mark Kelly explains how Kamala Harris would address border security issue as president
Aug 20, 2024, 4:25 AM
Sen. Mark Kelly, right, sits down for interview on his support for Kamala Harris, border security and other issues at the Democratic Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19, 2024. (KTAR News Photo)
(KTAR News Photo)
PHOENIX – Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said that if she is elected president, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris would address border security by enacting the bipartisan bill torpedoed by her opponent earlier this year.
“Kamala Harris has said she would sign that bipartisan border security bill that Democrats and Republicans negotiated … with her and the White House and the president,” Kelly told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.
Kelly hasn’t always agreed with how the Biden-Harris administration has handled the border in the past, but he emphasized Monday that issue is best handled by congressional action.
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And Kelly said Congress’ best hope was the bipartisan bill that Senate Republicans bailed on after Republican candidate Donald Trump came out against it.
“He was he was very specific why,” Kelly said of Trump. “He said he needed to have this for an election issue. I’ve never seen anything like this. … I don’t remember ever a politician saying don’t solve the problem that is clearly a problem … because he’s got an election coming up.”
Kelly said Biden waited until June to issue an executive order to throttle down the asylum process because he’d been holding out hope that Congress would enact a more comprehensive solution.
“The only option was for the administration — for the president and Vice President Harris — to do some things through executive actions. Those actions have helped. They brought the numbers down,” Kelly said.
The Arizona senator explained the bipartisan bill that Harris hopes to enact, however, would do even more to secure the border.
“There would have been more pay for Border Patrol agents. We would have been able to hire more Border Patrol agents or CBP [Customs and Border Protection] officers. There were so many positive things in that legislation,” he said.
