Vance makes Macomb Co. police station campaign stop to slam Harris’ immigration record

Flanked by local police and a prosecutor, former President Donald Trump running mate U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) knocked Vice President Kamala Harris’s record on immigration and law enforcement at a small event in Macomb County Wednesday morning.

His appearance before a small crowd in a key county that Trump has won twice came ahead of a scheduled Harris rally in Detroit, where the Democratic presidential nominee will be joined by her newly minted vice president pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. While Harris and Walz will hold rallies in swing states across the country this week, Vance has scheduled stops in the same places, often on the same day.

“We’re dealing with the consequences for it, even in places like Shelby Township,” Vance said. “Which the media would tell you, is far away from the Southern border and its problems. And geographically, of course, it is far away from the Southern border, but it’s not far away from its problems.”

Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, tapped Vance to be his running mate last month at the Republican National Convention. Vance appeared alongside Trump at a rally in Grand Rapids a few days later. 

Vance is a freshman Senator from Ohio, who gained some recognition after the publication of his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which outlined a somewhat controversial take for the causes of rural poverty. While he criticized Trump in 2016, he publically came around to the former president by 2022 while trying to earn his endorsement for the Senate. 

Jim Tignanelli, president of the Police Officers Association of Michigan, Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido, a GOP former state senator, and Shelby Township Police Chief Robert Shelide also made remarks. 

The GOP ticket has gone all in on illegal immigration as a keystone issue of their campaign. Vance linked increased illegal immigration to crime in Michigan, and he pointed blame at the Biden administration’s policies. 

However, a report out of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research found the likelihood of first-generation immigrants being incarcerated are 60% lower than people born in the United States.  

“The failure to protect our communities is a law and is a policy choice,” Vance said. “It is a policy choice to defund the police, which is what Kamala Harris wants to do. It is a policy choice to open up the American Southern border and allow migrant criminals to come into this community and make it less safe. It is a policy choice to not deport people, to suspend deportations, which is what Kamala Harris did.” 

He expressed support for immigrants who are in the country legally but told attendees that illegal immigration was making the country less safe, linking the issue to support for local law enforcement. 

“My message to legal immigrants was … we’d love to have you,” Vance said. “You’re very welcome, and we’re happy that you came through the proper channels.”

Tignanelli spoke about three police officers who died by gunfire in Michigan this year, saying the deaths were partially caused by illegal immigration. People living illegally in the state did not kill any of the officers, but Tignanelli said they were “learning from the illegals.” The speakers also highlighted cases where people who were in the state illegally committed violent crimes. 

“When people are allowed to enter the country illegally without consequence and maybe even be rewarded for it, it leads some citizens who are here legally to think that that type of behavior is okay,” Tignanelli said. 

Vance said a second Trump administration would “re-implement deportations,” finish constructing a border wall and stop offering amnesty for people in the country illegally. 

After defending Trump’s observation at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference that the vice presidential pick “makes no difference” in election results, Vance knocked Walz, describing the Minnesota governor and former U.S. House member as “a radical human being who comes from the far left-wing of the Democrat Party.”

Also on the topic of Trump’s interview at the NABJ conference, Vance said Trump’s comments that  Harris “turned Black” were “totally inoffensive” and repeated that he thought she was a “chameleon.” Harris is biracial and the daughter of immigrants; her father is Jamaican and her late mother was Indian. 

“She’s a fake and the American people have to look at her record if we actually want to know how she stands on the issues, because her words simply can’t be trusted,” Vance said. 

The previous day, Vance made a similar stop in Philadelphia before Harris’ rally in the city to link immigration to fentanyl deaths. He took questions from reporters in both Philadelphia and Macomb County and called out Harris for not doing interviews since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket. 

One reporter asked Vance what made him smile. He responded that he was having a “good time” campaigning before rolling the answer toward Trump, saying that the former president has “the best sense of humor,” but he’s also “a guy who’s very frustrated with what Kamala Harris has done to this country.”