EAGLE PASS, Texas — Nikki Haley wants to see U.S. businesses help lead the federal government out of the burgeoning border crisis by focusing on how to bring immigrants into the United States legally rather than prioritizing erecting physical barriers to keep illegal immigrants out.

With the backdrop of colorful shipping containers lining the Rio Grande in an attempt to prevent illegal migration from Mexico, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate joined the chorus of Republicans calling the number of illegal border crossings a "crisis" — only Haley's pitch Tuesday afternoon of a long-term plan to fix outdated immigration protocols was different with a business-centric approach. In a race that is expected to be crowded, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations offered a strategy that could set her apart from the competition.

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Haley became the first Republican contender to visit the southern border as part of the 2024 campaign, and in doing so, she set a precedent for other candidates as to prioritizing border security and immigration messaging in the coming months.

Although Haley has endorsed restoring some of the Trump-era border initiatives, such as asylum-seekers remaining in Mexico through court hearings, she offered a business-first approach as the cornerstone of her proposed solution in the same way that a border wall was former President Donald Trump's foundation.

"When it comes to actual immigration laws itself, instead of doing quotas every year on how many we're going to let in, you partner with your businesses and see what they need. And when you do that, all of a sudden, you're looking for merit and you're working for the economy in South Carolina," Haley said during a press conference following an eight-hour tour of south-central Texas earlier in the day.

"We've got farmers or we've got a tourist industry that's always looking for workers. When you start to listen to your businesses and do what they [want], all of a sudden, the economy goes up, people are put to work, and everything gets better," Haley said.

In a move meant to lead on the border and to distinguish herself from others, including Trump, Haley teamed up with a centrist, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), who represents the largest chunk of borderland in Congress. Haley dubbed him the "border king," though he's taken heat from fellow Texas Republicans for not endorsing their hard-line approach on asylum-seekers.

Haley embarked on a pre-dawn tour of Texas and traveled nearly 400 miles with Gonzales to hear from local police, judges, ranchers, and business owners about the negative impacts of increased illegal immigration since 2021. A caravan of press and aides followed Haley and Gonzales through San Antonio, Hondo, Uvalde, Del Rio, and Eagle Pass.

The trip looked at the journey illegal immigrants take from the border into the U.S., as well as the challenges that border businesses face.

Brendon Lowe, president of agricultural feed company Mumme's in Hondo, said his employees who work in the fields that run along railroad tracks that connect San Antonio to the border see a dozen people jump off the train and sprint through their fields daily. They are men and women who illegally entered the U.S. and made it past Border Patrol without getting caught.

Just last month, law enforcement in nearby towns found stowaways in the freight train cars, two of whom died from suffocation in the overheated conditions.

“It doesn't matter if you're in Hondo, if you're up in Eagle Pass, everybody's lives are turned upside down," Gonzales said.

Nancy Richardson is CEO of San Antonio Shoemakers, which has two factories within two miles of the border in Del Rio and 500 employees across its South Texas facilities. Illegal immigration hadn't been a major problem for employees until September 2021, when thousands of Haitian migrants at the nearby international bridge prompted the U.S. to shut down the port of entry temporarily. Because many of the company's workers live south of the border, the dayslong ordeal at the Del Rio border meant her staff members couldn't get to their jobs.

Haley called to hire 25,000 more Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel but acknowledged the numbers may be in flux if immediate changes such as stopping "catch and release" and restoring the Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" plan bore results and could be sustained.

Haley called for more deportations, keeping the pandemic-era Title 42 expulsion program, and ending funding for sanctuary cities. But she said she also wants to expand pathways for legal immigration by remaking the visa process to meet the needs of businesses while mandating E-Verify nationwide and enforcing it.

E-Verify is a federal program that allows private and public sector employers nationwide to run a job candidate’s legal documents and ensure a new hire is legally able to work in the U.S. Haley first made E-Verify the law of the land in South Carolina in 2011 when she included it in what was one of the biggest crackdown bills at the time on illegal immigration.

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Not only would E-Verify be federally required of businesses — Haley would follow her South Carolina model and make sure the federal officials are in place to enforce it. Such an effort would likely be met with legal action from immigrant advocacy groups.

Haley said enforcing existing laws and deterring illegal immigration is not "rocket science" and that Congress owes the people to get bipartisan immigration reform legislation done that takes the need for legal immigrant workers into account.