Grand Canyon Times

U.S. Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), during a visit to the AZ-Mexico border in Cochise County, said the Biden-Harris Administration border policies have caused people to suffer.

"They stopped deportations on Day One," said Vance. "They stopped construction of the border wall on Day One."

"They reinstated catch-and-release and they stopped Remain-in-Mexico," said Vance. "These policies cause real human beings to suffer."

During Vance's visit to the border on August 1, he met with Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels and his officers, as well as with Arizona border rancher John Ladd. There are 84 miles of U.S. - Mexico border in Cochise County, with two ports of entry.

Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens reported that Vice President Kamala Harris has not contacted him since his appointment in July 2023. Further, Retired Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz claims he never spoke to Harris during his entire appointment as Border Patrol Chief from August 2021 through June 2023, despite Harris being appointed to handle the border by President Joe Biden in 2021.

Harris only made one trip to the border in June of 2021. During this trip, “federal agents on the front lines were instructed to completely sanitize the area to hide the true severity of the crisis from cameras.” Since then, Harris has never made an appearance anywhere near the Southern border. 

There have been 238,875 total encounters in the Tucson Sector, which includes Cochise County, during fiscal year 2024, with 241,155 of these encounters being from citizens of Mexico, 78,947 from Guatemala, 3,259 from Honduras, 3,050 from El Salvador, and 102,465 from citizens from other countries. This is the highest level of encounters across the entire southwest border area.

To date, fiscal year 2024, which runs from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has arrested 38,473 illegal aliens who have previous criminal convictions or who are wanted by law enforcement, according to an analysis of CBP Data conducted by Tucson Standard.

President Donald Trump named Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his Vice President and running mate during the Republican National Convention held in Milwaukee in July. 

Vance was first elected to serve Ohio in the U.S. Senate in the Nov. 2022 General Election. He defeated U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), winning 53% to Ryan’s 47%.

Vance served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007, graduated from Ohio State University, and received a J.D. from Yale University Law School. He also is the author of the 2016 book, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which reached The New York Times Bestseller list in 2016 and 2017. A Middletown, Ohio native, Vance lives with his wife and three children.