Republican Ohio senate candidate J. D. Vance urged the GOP on Wednesday to demand immediate border-wall negotiations from President Biden in the event the party sweeps the midterms.
“Republicans, we need to have a fight over the border wall. And we need to be willing to say to Joe Biden: ‘You don’t get another dime for your priorities unless you do your job and enforce and secure the Southern border,’” Vance told a crowd on the campaign trail in Ohio, according to Politico.
The author of memoir Hillbilly Elegy has been a fierce advocate of stronger immigration enforcement, especially amid record migrant influxes into the interior with seemingly little accountability from the Biden administration.
Vance has vowed to push for $3 billion to resume construction of the semi-completed wall separating the U.S. from Mexico and secure the border. He said the GOP must be prepared to use its power to put that issue on the table right away if it reclaims a majority in Congress.
“We have to be willing to use the leverage that we will have with congressional majorities to actually force Joe Biden to do some of the core functions of the federal government,” he said. “One of the things we have to be willing to do as Republicans is force the conversation on border security. It’s killing way too many people.”
In September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that the Biden administration would restart border operations ranging from repairing gates and roads to filling gaps in the wall that were left after Biden halted building in January 2021. While the Biden administration has not admitted that it is taking up former president Trump’s border project, it appears to be doing minor maintenance work such as fixing border fencing.
For example, in August, Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas authorized U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to conduct the Yuma Morelos Dam Project, sealing four gaps in the wall along Arizona’s border. This represents a small reversal from President Biden’s January 20, 2021, proclamation that, “Building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution” and “a waste of money.”
Vance’s opponent, Democratic representative Tim Ryan, has in the past implied that he is a racist for his tough border rhetoric.
At a debate earlier this week, Ryan claimed Vance was a sympathizer of the Great Replacement Theory, which posits that Jews are conspiring to displace white Americans with minorities and foreigners. Vance retorted that he is the father of biracial children and such allegations endanger him and his family.
“My biracial children get attacked by scumbags online and in person because you are so desperate for political power that you’ll accuse me, the father of three beautiful biracial babies, of engaging in racism. We are sick of it,” Vance said. “You can believe in the border without being a racist. You can believe in the country without being a racist.”