Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake vowed Wednesday to declare the border crisis an “invasion” and deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Lake told Just the News that the federal government is not upholding their duties listed in Article IV of the Constitution, which guarantees the federal government’s role to “protect” American citizens from invasion. She then cited the state’s right to “step in and protect their citizens” amid danger and “imminent invasion.”
“We’re going to take it into our own hands,” the candidate said. “We’re going to finish President Trump’s wall. On Day One, I will issue a declaration of invasion, we’re gonna send our troops down to the border, Arizona National Guard troops, and we’re going to arm them and allow them to arrest and detain people until we process them and send them back over the border. It’s pretty simple. You protect your people, and that needs to be done, and right now our government’s failing on that the states are going to have to protect our border.”
Lake addressed the consequences of lifting Title 42, a Trump-era policy allowing for the immediate expulsion of migrants to prevent the spread of COVID-19, saying apprehension numbers will be “nothing compared to what’s about to hit” if the policy is overturned. Intelligence officials have been preparing for an influx of over 170,000 migrants if the policy is scrapped. (RELATED: CNN’s Brianna Keilar Calls Biden’s Border Crisis ‘Staggering’)
Border Patrol agents apprehended a total of 167,973 migrants along the Southwest border in February, a 7% increase from January, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data found. The average number of unaccompanied children hit 520 per day last month, a drastic 37% increase from the previous month.
The influx of migrants significantly jumped after President Joe Biden assumed office in 2021, according to CBP data. The total number of encounters jumped from 458,088 in 2020 to 1,734,686 in 2021. The number of current migrant encounters have already hit 838,685 since the fiscal year began in October, already doubling the full year-to-date amount in 2020.
Lake holds a four-point lead in the Republican primary over fellow candidates Matt Salmon and Karin Taylor Robson, according to RealClearPolitics.