Senator Tim Scott (R., S.C.) visited Yuma, Ariz., on Friday to tour the U.S.-Mexico border and meet with community leaders who are on the frontline of the migrant crisis.
Ahead of his visit, Scott, who is running for president, laid out his plans for tackling the crisis in an essay for the New York Post.
“I will restart construction to finish the border wall and deploy the latest and greatest military-grade technology to crack down on drug smuggling and human trafficking at our entry ports,” Scott wrote, adding that he would also plan to “cancel Biden’s 87,000 new IRS agents and double Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to 87,000 agents instead.”
Scott noted that, as a senator, he authored a bill to reinstate the Title 42 public-health order that allowed the U.S. to immediately expel migrants without an asylum hearing. Scott vowed to sign this legislation into law if elected president. Earlier this year, he introduced a bill to withhold funding from sanctuary cities and redistribute the money to border security. He has also said he would like to reinstate the Trump administration’s Title 42 public health directive that expelled migrants back to Mexico — a policy that ended in May.
“I will delete the Biden administration’s new smartphone app that provides concierge service to illegal immigrants, end catch-and-release, and hire 1,000 new immigration judges so we can stop releasing people into our heartland with a polite invitation to a hearing often multiple years away,” he writes, adding that he also plans to “implement a zero-tolerance policy for illegal immigrants with criminal records.”
At least 7 million people have illegally crossed the border since President Biden took office, Scott said, and more than 70,000 Americans are dying each year from fentanyl.
Scott vowed to be a “commander in chief who takes off the kid gloves and treats the Mexican drug cartels killing Americans like the foreign terrorist organizations they are.”
“I will freeze their assets, sanction their bank accounts, break their supply chains, and use every power of the presidency to end the cartels before they end more American lives,” he said.
Scott’s trip to the border comes as he steadily climbs in the polls.
Growing support for Scott and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has slightly diminished former president Donald Trump’s double-digit lead over the Republican field in New Hampshire. A recent Daily Mail poll from J.L. Partners found Trump with 42 percent support in the Granite State, down from 51 percent in April. Florida governor Ron DeSantis remains in second place but has seen his support drop from 18 percent in April to 15 percent. Scott and Christie are tied with 8 percent each.
The latest University of New Hampshire poll shows Scott in third place, behind Trump and DeSantis. Scott also notched the highest net favorability among all candidates.
Meanwhile, a Fox Business poll shows Scott in third place among Iowa Republicans. Trump notched 46 percent support among likely GOP caucus-goers, while DeSantis received 16 percent and Scott had 11 percent.
The campaign is confident about Scott’s growth.
“We’re sticking to the plan we set out on as Tim Scott is the one candidate in this race with movement and momentum,” communication director Nathan Brand told National Review.
The comment draws a natural contrast to DeSantis’s campaign, which has had to shift strategy and make cuts in recent weeks amid financial struggles and a failure to see growth in the polls.
In a Q2 fundraising memo last month, the Scott campaign said it would begin the next stage of the race with more than $21 million on-hand after a $6.1 million fundraising haul in the second quarter. He has met the requirements to appear on the debate stage later this month, receiving more than 145,000 donations from over 53,000 unique donors across all 50 states, per the memo.
“His consistently conservative record, positive message, and ability to connect with voters everywhere is why Tim Scott is resonating,” Brand said. “As more Republicans in places like Iowa and New Hampshire get to know the Senator’s accomplishments, background, and vision for the country, they gravitate to our campaign.”
Scott held a town hall in Ankeny, Iowa, last week with Iowa governor Kim Reynolds that drew more than 300 Iowa caucus-goers. “I can tell all of you that every time I leave an event that Tim spoke at, I leave feeling more hopeful about our country and the opportunities that are ahead of us,” Reynolds said last week.
He has plans to return to Iowa for the state fair later this month to join Reynolds for one of her “Fair-Side Chats” and was one of several 2024 contenders who spoke at the Republican Party of Iowa’s Annual Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines last week.
National Review’s Rich Lowry rated Scott’s remarks a “B+,” explaining that while the senator “understands the power of story-telling, and has a lot of good ones to tell,” he questions “what makes his message distinctive, besides the cheerfulness? Plus, he really needs to flesh out his policy positions to avoid the sense that his campaign is all about his personal story.”
Aside from the rollout of his border policy, Scott has primarily relied on his day job as a U.S. senator to show off his policy chops. In the Senate, Scott authored the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and introduced several pieces of legislation to take on China, including the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which became law. He also introduced the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which “aims to stop the flow of deadly fentanyl into our country by choking off the income source of those who traffic in synthetic opioids.”
Scott has also touted his 100 percent “pro-life voting record.”
“Republicans should not be retreating on life. We need a national 15-week limit to stop blue states from pushing abortion on demand,” Scott posted on Twitter. “@sbaprolife defends the most fundamental right: life. Without life, nothing else matters. It’s not a special interest. It’s the only interest.”