Sen. Joe Manchin says VP Kamala Harris is 'dead wrong' to claim that the border is secure

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia told Fox News anchor Bret Baier that Vice President Kamala Harris was "dead wrong" to claim that America's border is secure.

While massive numbers of migrants have been pouring across the southern border month after month, Harris told "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd that the U.S. border is secure.

"The border is secure. But we also have a broken immigration system, in particular over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed," the vice president said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data indicates that from October 2021 through July 2022 there have been nearly 2 million southwest land border encounters.

Todd pressed the issue, asking the vice president whether she is "confident" that the border is secure.

"We have a secure border, in that that is a priority for any nation including ours," Harris said, indicating that it represents a priority for the administration.

But Manchin described the claim that the border is secure as "not accurate," adding, "I've been there. It's wrong."

CBP press releases regularly highlight the apprehension of previously deported criminals who committed heinous crimes.

For example, authorities recently caught an individual who in 2019 had been "convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor in South Carolina and sentenced to five years in prison," according to a CBP press release. That individual, who had been deported in May of this year, was just arrested on September 2.

Similarly, on September 7, Border Patrol agents caught a person who had been deported in June of this year after getting "convicted, in December 2021 in California, of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age," according to another CBP press release.

Cases in which previously deported criminals illegally reenter the U.S. clearly illustrate the critical importance of border security as a matter of public safety.