Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Sunday accused her competitor, former President Donald Trump, of using a top issue with voters as a political plaything: the crisis at the southern border.
The former U.N. ambassador said Mr. Trump was “absolutely playing politics” by telling congressional Republicans to reject a deal with Democrats to help curb the record influx of illegal border crossings.
“We shouldn’t be getting involved telling Republicans that wait until the election because we don’t want this to help Biden win,” Ms. Haley said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We can’t wait one more day. You have millions of people who have come to that border. They are not being vetted. America is acting like it’s September 10.”
The bipartisan agreement, which was expected to be released Sunday and include mandatory expulsion authorities once 5,000 daily illegal crossings are reached, is dead on arrival in the GOP-led House, Speaker Mike Johson has said.
“This is not a time to play politics,” Ms. Haley said. “I hear some Republicans saying, ‘Oh, but we don’t need a law at all because Biden could do this already.’ Well, there’s some truth to that, and then some of that is false. Yes, Biden could go back to some of the laws that put it in place. But 3 million illegal immigrants came under Trump.”