SAN ANTONIO — Wearing a cowboy hat and his uniform, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar appeared on stage at the Democratic National Convention and gave a firsthand account of the immigration issue, suggesting Vice President Kamala Harris has done more to secure the border than her election opponent, Donald Trump.
The address, timing in at less than two minutes during Wednesday's primetime DNC programming in Chicago, represented a counterbalance to what Texas Republicans have called a "border crisis" exacerbated by the Biden administration's policies. It also marked the most prominent appearance by a San Antonio-area leader at the convention.
"The border sheriffs that I know, and I, we’re like Kamala. We protect and serve. We enforce the law. We show compassion, and we fight like hell to protect our border," Salazar said to a DNC crowd numbering in the thousands. "Because as we’ve always known in Texas, cuando luchamos, ganamos. When we fight, we win.”
Salazar's remarks came during a portion of programming devoted to the border. Salazar was preceded by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who said the Democratic presidential candidate "knows we can be a nation of strong immigrants and strong immigration laws."
The speech by Salazar, a Democrat, was notable given Bexar County's proximity to the southern border and its front-row exposure to law enforcement's battle against human smugglers. In June 2022, the county was the site of the deadliest U.S. smuggling case in history, when 53 migrants were found dead or dying in an overheated big rig along Quintana Road.
He began his remarks with details commonly seen across smuggling cases, pointing out how traffickers "pack migrants into 18-wheelers like cattle," sometimes by the dozens.
"That's when the 911 calls come," he told the crowd. "We hear them—desperate, terrified, gasping for air. Sometimes we get there in time. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we can't."
He then turned his focus to Harris' election opponent, saying Trump is "not there to help us" when he comes to the border. In what became one of the themes of the night, he said Trump "killed the border bill," referring to a bipartisan border package that was blocked in February by Senate Republicans after the former president blasted the proposal.
"He is a self-serving man," Salazar said of Trump, to audible applause from DNC attendees. "He made our jobs harder."
The sheriff then praised Harris, saying she clamped down on and imprisoned suspected traffickers who continued to come to the U.S. Salazar's remarks painted a portrait of the presidential candidate contrasting Republican rebukes, including by Gov. Greg Abbott, who took aim at Harris for doing little to secure the border.
She has previously been called the "border czar," although she is not in charge of border security or immigration policy. She was tasked with addressing the root causes of migration from three Central American countries.
"She’s gone down to Mexico and worked to stop the traffickers, and when the traffickers didn’t stop, she put them in jail," Salazar said. "Down in my neck of the woods, we call that fooling around and finding out."
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg is also attending the DNC as a member of the Texas delegation and spoke at a breakfast earlier this week.
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