Haley discusses border security, energy
GOP presidential hopeful calls herself ‘new generational conservative leader’
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley discussed border security, energy policies and state power during an interview Thursday with the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board.
With the March 5 primary fast approaching, Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, arrived in Texas last week to press on with her bid for the GOP nomination. After a series of primary defeats to former President Donald Trump, Haley’s campaign recently discussed its focus on open primary states such as Texas, where Democrats can cross over and vote in a Republican primary.
A recent poll by the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs showed Haley trailing Trump by a 60% margin in the Texas Republican primary. During a Thursday interview with the Chronicle, the former ambassador called on Texas voters of all party affiliations to cast a ballot for her in March, referring to herself as “a new generational conservative leader” who can take the nation in a new direction.
“This is about, do you want more of the same or do you want somebody different?” she said. “I don’t ask who’s Republican, who’s Democrat, who’s independent. But what I do talk about is how we need to get our debt down and our economy back on track. I do talk about the fact that we gotta get our kids reading again and back to the basics in education. I talk about the fact that we need to secure our borders with no more excuses.”
After her stop in Houston, Haley went to Dallas for a rally in the evening and to San Antonio for a meet and
greet Friday afternoon. She then returned to South Carolina, where she previously served as governor.
Here are three takeaways from the interview:
Immigration
Haley signed one of the strictest immigration bills in the country as South Carolina’s governor. The 2011 legislation aimed to prevent undocumented immigrants from securing employment in the state by utilizing the federal E-Verify database.
The candidate said Thursday that, if elected president, she would seek to implement the E-Verify system nationwide. She said she would also defund so-called “sanctuary cities,” empower border patrols and reintroduce a controversial Trump-era border policy known as “remain in Mexico,” which sent people seeking asylum back across the U.S.Mexico border to await a ruling on their applications for U.S. protection. Haley also criticized the nation’s current asylum laws, arguing that the vetting process is not stringent enough.
This month, Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan border deal and foreign aid package amid opposition from top Republican leaders including Trump. Despite significant decreases in arrests for illegal crossings at the border in recent weeks, Haley said federal officials from both parties need to take responsibility for failing to strengthen border security or reform immigration laws through legislation.
“Everybody in D.C. is to blame for this, Republicans, Democrats, the president, Congress, all of them, because there is no excuse for going one more day without securing that border,” she said.
Energy
Haley said Thursday that the energy sector must play a key role in revitalizing the nation’s economy. She criticized current environmental regulations, particularly those enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency, as too restrictive and harmful to economic growth.
“We get the EPA out of the way, we start up the pipelines, we speed up permitting, we start to focus on nuclear,” she said. “We can actually turn our energy sector into an economic powerhouse that will help us pay down debt, that will help us get inflation down, that will strengthen every American family.”
While acknowledging the need to address climate change, Haley said China and India should bear a greater responsibility in contributing to global emission reduction efforts. She also emphasized the importance of federal officials building stronger relationships with current energy sector stakeholders.
“Stop demonizing energy producers and start partnering with them,” Haley said. “They want to help when it comes to the environment, but they don’t want to be forced. They don’t want to be mandated, and they don’t want to be slowed down. They want to be part of the solution.”
Empowering states
The presidential candidate outlined a plan to scale down the federal government by shifting more programs to the states in key areas such as education, health care and mental health. This would allow each state to tailor these services to better fit the needs of its residents, she said.
The policy would bring benefits “to every Houstonian family, to every American family in terms of making sure the resources go to the ground where it should be,” she said.
Haley, describing herself as “unapologetically pro-life,” also voiced her support for states having the primary authority to regulate abortion laws. At the same time, she acknowledged that many states, including Texas, might need to revise their laws to ensure they are feasible.
“Texas had an issue where it was clear that they gotta make some adjustments and fix it, and they should be willing to do that,” she said.
Haley recently stirred controversy by suggesting Texas could secede from the United States if it chose to. She later walked back her comment, saying the Constitution does not allow for secession, CNN reported. She added Thursday that her intention was to advocate for residents in every state to decide how they want to be governed.
“Texas has talked about (secession) for a long time. The reality is we all know that they’re not going to,” she said. “What they want to do is be free. They don’t want to be told how to live. … And we should want them to have that.”