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South Texas Sheriffs Clap Back at VP Harris’ Claim Border Is ‘Secure’

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


A South Texas sheriff has taken umbrage at Vice President Kamala Harris’ claims during an interview about the U.S.-Mexico border.

Speaking with “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd, Harris — who was assigned the task of dealing with a surge in illegal immigration and drug smuggling by President Joe Biden not long after they took office — was asked about the current status of the border. The VP gave a somewhat pained response but did say that it was “secure.”

“I think that there is no question that we have to do what the president and I asked Congress to do. The first request we made, pass a bill to create a pathway to citizenship. The border is secure, but we also have a broken immigration system, in particular over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed,” she said.

However, in an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd pushed back on Harris’ claims while also praising Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for bussing hundreds of volunteer migrants to Democrat-run “sanctuary” cities like Washington, D.C., New York City, and Chicago.

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“It was a great ploy by Governor Abbott to bring attention back to something that was kind of fading away from mainstream media,” Boyd said. “He’s put it back in their lap, and I applaud him for what he’s done.”

He then went on to mock Harris’ claim of a “secure” border.

“The border is wide open,” Boyd said. “In Texas, the Border Patrol is encountering over 100,000 illegal aliens. So every month, Border Patrol agents tell me that on a good day, they encounter between eight and 15 percent of the number of people that actually come across.”

In another interview, Fox News’ Neil Cavuto spoke to another border county sheriff, Maverick County’s Tom Schmerber, who also ridiculed the vice president’s claims about the border. He also said that soon, northern states will begin to see what’s going on as well.

“The vice president not answering Chuck Todd’s simple but direct and very, very clear question,” Cavuto began after playing a clip of Harris responding to the host’s question about the status of the border. “Two million now have crossed that border and the number could still go higher, and yet no real clear answer outside of saying that the border is indeed under control. Sheriff, she’s indicating the border is secure. The numbers seem to indicate anything but. Your thoughts?”

“My priorities is [sic] the security of my county here. But it’s very hard to keep that,” Schmerber replied.  “We’re having all kinds of people, immigrants coming through this area here. I’m very worried in reference to who’s coming through. I know there’s people that want to make a better life, but then there’s people that want to take advantage of the situation, the criminal element. That’s my worry and that’s my priority to make sure it’s secure. But with my number of deputies, it’s very hard to work on it.”

“I haven’t seen anything that would stop this immigration problem coming through to the USA. I worked with the Border Patrol, I retired from Border Patrol, and I have never seen something like this. Once in a while we would see –  with a change of administration. We’d have a little problem but we’d stop it right away. This is not happening right now,” the sheriff continued.

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“They [migrants] want to keep going north. So they will see it eventually,” Schmerber told Cavuto.

“You know, I don’t believe Kamala Harris has returned to the border from that first and only trip,” Cavuto said in response. “She talks about solving the underlying problem and that it was much worse in the prior administration. Bottom line is the numbers have accelerated at a pace we haven’t seen in any administration.”

“But that aside, I’m wondering when we hear it’s secure, when we hear that a number of mayors in some of these sanctuary cities who are complaining about Governor Abbott sending busloads of migrants to their cities and saying that he’s wreaking political havoc, or that the Homeland Security secretary is essentially saying the same, that says it’s on him and not on anyone else, what do you make of that?” Cavuto asked.

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“Two ways of thinking. Yes, he’s doing that so that people up north will see the problem that we have over here. I mean, that’s — I see like — the northern states, they’re comfortable,” Schmerber said. “They don’t see these problems over here. I want to tell them that this is a wave. They want to keep going north. So they will see it eventually. This wave is going up there, north, and hopefully it’s not too late for them to try to control some of it.”

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