Nikki Haley on Immigration

All right, Governor, Jenny is, thank you, an artist from Urbandale, where are you, Jenny? This says, Jenny, that you're still undecided who you'll caucus for just six days to go, is that right? It is true. Yeah, that's right. Okay. You're leaning towards somebody? No. Really undecided? Really undecided. Okay, so what's your question for Governor Haley? Hi, Jenny. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I watch the news a lot every day, and I watch how many people are pouring over the border. And I keep wondering, how are we, as the United States, supposed to provide housing, medical care, food, education for all of these people? And then if we deport them, how do we pay for that as well? We're not supposed to. And your question is exactly what I think every American is worried about. And it's not just the southern border, it's the northern border, too. You look at the fact that we have had eight million illegal immigrants come to that border. Biden sent back only 142,000 last year. That's it. We've had more fentanyl cross the border that would kill every single American. Number one cause of death for adults 18 to 45, fentanyl. And don't think for a second China doesn't know what they're doing when they send it over. If we want to deal with this, we have to deal with it once and for all. No more excuses. And that means more than just building a wall. We need to do more than that. When I was governor, I passed one of the toughest illegal immigration laws in the country. Obama sued me over it. We need to carry that nationwide. We'll do a national E-Verify program where businesses have to prove that the people they hire are in this country legally. We'll put 25,000 border patrol and ICE agents on the ground and let them do their job. They're not letting them do their job right now. We will defund sanctuary cities once and for all so that there are no safe havens for any illegal immigrants. We will go back to the remain in Mexico policy so they never step foot on U.S. soil to start with. And instead of catch and release, we'll go to catch and deport. And for all of those that have come over, as cruel as it sounds, you've got to send them back. We have to send them back because if we don't send them back, it is an incentive for others to come in. And Biden gave half a million Venezuelans temporary protective status. That's half a million Social Security numbers. That's half a million driver's licenses. I saw at the U.N. what that does. They pick up the phone and they call their family members and they tell them to come on. Not only that, they're cutting the line of those people who were trying to do it the right way. We are a country of laws. The second we stop being a country of laws, we give up everything this country was founded on. We need to secure the border. We need to build the wall. We need to deport anybody that doesn't come here the right way. And we need to start thinking of, again, national security. America right now is acting like it's September 10th. We better remember what September 12th felt like because it only takes one person. Governor, former President Trump's campaign is out with an ad today that says that you are too weak and too liberal to deal with the immigration issue and the border. It says that you refused to call illegal immigrants criminals and was opposed to Trump's border wall. What's your response to that? My response is, why did Obama sue me for passing one of the toughest illegal immigration laws in the country? Look, just because President Trump says something doesn't make it true. First of all, I appreciate all the attention President Trump is giving me. It is quite sweet and thoughtful of him, but he's lying about it. And I'll tell you, the reason he's lying about it is because he's taking snippets of things I said. I said, you shouldn't just do the border wall. You have to do more than that. That's what I said. From the second I was governor of South Carolina, we fought against illegal immigration. We fought against the Syrian refugees. We fought against Guantanamo Bay prisoners coming. We fought every single second because we cannot have people who have not come here the right way. My parents came here the right way. We are blessed to take care of my parents. They are 87 and 90. And whenever I have dinner with my mom, she still says, are those people still crossing the border? They are offended by what's happening. And my mom would always say, if they don't follow the laws to come to this country, they won't follow the laws when they get to this country.