Border district Republican invites Kamala Harris to view crisis firsthand: 'Sticks out like a sore thumb'
Rep. Darrell Issa is inviting Vice President Kamala Harris to tour the border in his district as Republicans hammer her over the Biden administration's handling of it.
EXCLUSIVE: A senior House Republican whose district borders Mexico is inviting Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to come see the crisis firsthand.
"Every year, for four years now, both before and after she was given the job of dealing with the border by finding and curing the root causes, I've invited her to come to the border. And one of the reasons was that obviously it was a border crisis practically from day one of the Biden administration," Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital in an interview.
"But also by year two, when she got this job from the president, she immediately implied that there were three countries that this was all coming from, or that those three countries were filled with people who were coming, you know, fleeing crime."
Issa was referring to Harris being tapped to tackle the "root causes" of mass migration from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala – a role that’s earned her widespread criticism among Republicans as the migrant crisis continued to affect cities across the country.
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The former House Oversight chairman told Fox News Digital that from his experience in his home district, however, the migration problem was more widespread than just those three countries.
"I wanted her to come and see that, even then, we had a very diverse group of immigrants, coming more and more from other parts of the world, whether it was Romania or Russia, or all the parts of Asia," Issa said.
Issa said he does not expect Harris to take him up on his offer, citing his experience with her as then-junior senator from California when he served as director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency under the Trump administration.
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"When I was a Trump appointee, she wouldn't meet with me as a hometown senator. [Late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.,] did," Issa said. "She has never been somebody who took the time to cross the aisle and speak to senators or House members, even from their home state, even on state issues."
The most recent data show that border encounters fell to their lowest monthly number during Biden’s presidency in June, with just under 84,000 migrants encountered between points of entry, after the president signed an executive order restricting most asylum claims when the seven-day average of illegal crossings rises above 2,500.
But Republicans have argued that number is still too high, and continued to blame both Biden and Harris for instances of crime committed by illegal immigrants against Americans this year.
"I have about 100 miles of the Mexican border, east of San Diego. What we see and hear is from law enforcement, the increased amount of border crime," Issa said.
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His latest invitation to Harris comes as Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, former President Trump’s running mate, is expected to tour part of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Thursday.
"Republicans don't agree on everything, but we agree that government is already too big, the taxes are already too high. We believe that laws should be enforced, criminals should be punished, and that our border should be secure," Issa said. "Harris not coming sticks out like a sore thumb. J.D. coming is to be expected because … supporting national defense, including border defense, those are core tenets of our party."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment but did not hear back by press time.