Haley Campaign Press Release - Haley Debuts New Immigration Attack on Trump for Once Donating to Kamala

By: Naomi Lim
Online here

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is using the border crisis to draw another contrast between herself and former President Donald Trump as she tries to cut into his 2024 Republican primary support while she still can.

Haley, who had previously criticized Trump for encouraging congressional Republicans to block the bipartisan national security funding agreement and its immigration policy reforms, debuted another attack on the campaign trail Monday before South Carolina's Feb. 24 GOP primary.

"I will add the same year that we passed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country, Donald Trump contributed to Kamala Harris's campaign," the former governor said in Aiken, South Carolina, of her 2011 legislation. "That's a fact."

Trump donated twice to Vice President Kamala Harris before he became a politician when she was a candidate running for California attorney general. He gave $5,000 to her in 2011 and another $1,000 in 2013. Meanwhile, in 2011, Haley enacted E-Verify statewide and made it compulsory for police to check the immigration status of anyone they stopped or arrested and suspected may be in the country illegally.

During the same campaign event and a later stop in Spartanburg, Haley did scrutinize the Senate-led proposal for not reintroducing the Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" program, where immigrants await the outcome of their immigration applications outside the country, and for not triggering an emergency presidential authority that would permit President Joe Biden to severely restrict applications unless 5,000 illegal immigrants were encountered at the border in a week.

"We have to do it with the first person," Haley added in Aiken.

Haley also expressed her disapproval of Trump's approach to the national security agreement during a separate appearance on Fox News.

"It's irresponsible to say that Congress has to wait until a general election because Trump is worried that he's going to lose," she told the network. "There's a lot of reasons we gotta worry Trump's going to lose, but you don't sacrifice national security to do it."

Haley will be in California on Wednesday for fundraisers and a rally, promising to remain in the primary race until Super Tuesday on March 5, despite Trump's polling advantage. Her campaign announced Monday morning she raised $16.5 million last month alone.