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Nikki Haley lashed out at a “completely distraught” Donald Trump and blamed him for the chaos at the US southern border, saying he had deliberately scuppered bipartisan efforts in Congress to crack down on immigration.
Speaking at a rally in the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, Haley said Trump had allowed millions of migrants to enter the country during his presidency — and blocked a recent congressional deal on the border so he could use immigration as a weapon in 2024. Home race.
“Donald Trump went and told them not to pass anything until after November because it would hurt him in the general election,” Haley told a crowd of supporters at the Sawyer Park Icehouse bar on Monday.
“We can’t wait another day to secure that border. We have to start now.
Haley’s latest attack on Trump comes as he makes a last-ditch effort to secure votes ahead of Super Tuesday, when Texas will be among more than a dozen states holding votes in the Republican primary race.
The former South Carolina governor had little success in stopping Trump, who won all key early voting states in the Republican race. Haley’s first and only victory came last weekend, when she won the primary in the District of Columbia.
Haley has escalated her attacks on the former president in recent weeks, and her message Monday in Texas was that Trump is soft on immigration and is an obstacle to finding a solution.
Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate recently canceled a bipartisan compromise deal that would have tightened border controls, in exchange for more US aid for Ukraine and other allies, after Trump signaled he did not want his colleagues in Congress they voted in favor.
“If you look at that bill, the best part of the bill is that it strengthens asylum laws,” Haley said. “We have to do it. Under Trump, three million illegal immigrants arrived because our asylum laws weren’t strong enough.”
Trump needed to “stay out” of the congressional process, he said.
Trump and President Joe Biden traveled separately to the border late Thursday, lashing out at each other in dueling speeches that underlined how immigration has become a campaign issue this year.
“This is an invasion by Joe Biden,” Trump said Thursday during a trip to the border town of Eagle Pass.
Biden spoke 200 miles away in the town of Brownsville, where he urged Republicans to come together and pass the bipartisan bill, which would increase staffing at the border, raise the threshold for those eligible for asylum and give the president the power to close the border. .