At an event Sunday night, Arizona’s Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters criticized incumbent Mark Kelly (D) and the Biden administration’s failed handling of the southern border, contending that no attempt at protection is being made whatsoever.
“Well, [Joe] Biden and Marky Kelly, they’re not even trying. Look at what they’re doing at the southern border. It would be bad enough if Mark Kelly and Joe Biden were trying but failing to secure our border, but guys, they’re not even trying. Day one, one of the first things Biden did, he signed away the border wall,” Masters said. “This dereliction of duty at the southern border, I think it’s just one of many reasons why Senator Kelly is going to be fired on Tuesday.”
Joe Biden and Mark Kelly ERASED our border with Mexico and incentivized more than 5 million illegal aliens to come here.
If you like illegal immigration and fentanyl, Mark Kelly’s your guy. If you’re sick of it, vote for me.pic.twitter.com/GKci5VWawL
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) November 7, 2022
Masters spoke at the “Get Out and Vote Rally” hosted by gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake.
As announced by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), immigration encounters at the southern border are not slowing down. FAIR received preliminary numbers for October, which showed that border patrol agents apprehended approximately 209,664 immigrants at the southern border last month. This number shows a roughly 30 percent increase compared to last year, which saw 164,837 encounters. This is on top of the 5.5 million immigrants FAIR reported entering the country since Biden took office in 2021.
🚨 FAIR has determined that 5.5 million illegal aliens have crossed the U.S. border since Joe Biden and Mark Kelly were elected.
That’s larger than the population of Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Chandler, Scottsdale, Glendale, Gilbert, Tempe, Flagstaff, and Yuma COMBINED!
— Blake Masters for U.S. Senate Press (@MastersPress) November 6, 2022
Additionally, FAIR stated agents counted 86,796 “gotaways,” or immigrants who get past security into the country, during October. FAIR president Dan Stein said this is all due to the Biden administration’s failed policies.
“We are quickly approaching the end of a catastrophic two years for border security, and consequently, for the American people. The primary responsibility of the federal government is to protect Americans and our interests. President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have knowingly, willfully, and consistently violated that responsibility,” Stein said. “We have never seen such numbers in our history, and the Biden administration’s open-borders policies are solely to blame.”
Moreover, Masters said the problem at the border is not exclusively the people coming over but the deadly drugs coming as well.
“It’s not just the people. It’s the fentanyl. It’s killing our kids. We’ve lost 100,000 Americans in the last 12 months to this poison, and that’s what it is; it’s poison. I’ve stopped using the term overdose to describe fentanyl deaths because the more apt term is poisoned. These are intentional poisonings,” Masters said. “So, where’s Mark Kelly been in the last 20 months when we’ve lost more than 2,500 people to this poison?”
As reported by The Arizona Sun Times, Masters has gone on record saying Kelly should have to attend the funerals of any Arizonan teenager who has died from fentanyl during his time in office. Masters doubled down on this stance at Sunday’s event.
“Let him [Kelly] look a grieving mother in the eye and explain to her why he couldn’t be bothered to lift a finger to secure the border,” Masters said.
Masters said Kelly’s biggest crime is serving as Biden’s rubber-stamp vote and allowing him to get away with everything he has.
“He [Kelly] could have done it. He’s the 50th vote in the Senate. Biden needed his vote to achieve absolutely everything. Mark Kelly had the leverage. He failed to stand up,” Masters said.
Masters zeroed in on this point during the Arizona Senate debate, saying that if Kelly truly cared about border security, he would have refused to vote for any of Biden’s agendas until the border received help.
Watch the entire event featuring Masters here.
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Neil Jones is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Neil on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Blake Masters” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0. Photo “Mark Kelly” by Senator Mark Kelly. Background Photo “Border Patrol Agents Intercept a Large Group of Migrants” by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
