(Cochise County photo, left; Getty Images photo, right)
(Cochise County photo, left; Getty Images photo, right)
PHOENIX — Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Arizona on Thursday but will not visit the southern border.
“We’ve come to accept that,” said Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dunnells. KTAR News 92.3 FM on thursday.
“Communities along the Southwest Border I work with and my fellow sheriffs say the President and Vice President do not prioritize the Southwest Border when it comes to national security, public safety, or humanitarian efforts. ”
President Joe Biden has named Harris “emperor of the border” in 2021, but the vice president hasn’t spent time on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona.
Harris and other members of the Biden administration will stay in Tonopah, about 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, to mark the power grid infrastructure project.
This will be his first visit to Arizona since taking office.
Biden made his first visit to the southern border as president this month and saw first-hand the situation in El Paso, Texas.
“She comes to the border states, but she doesn’t come to the border,” said Dunnells, whose county is in southeastern Arizona along the border.
“We have embraced it as the new norm at our borders, so much so that it is no longer even consulted. Hmm.”
Danells said that if Harris came to the border, he would show her the impact the border crisis had on Cochise County.
“We need a federal government, we need resources, and most importantly, we need support from the Vice President and the President to secure our borders,” said Dunnells.
Nick Sadowski of KTAR News 92.3 FM contributed to this report.
