Vance: Reduce Legal Immigration        10/30 06:09

   

   (AP) -- Vice President JD Vance advocated a slowdown in legal immigration 
Wednesday, saying, "We have to get the overall numbers way, way down."

   Vance took questions from students at the University of Mississippi at an 
event organized by Turning Point USA, stepping into the role of debater that 
was so often performed by the organization's slain founder, Charlie Kirk.

   Vance said the optimal number of legal immigrants to admit is "far less than 
what we've been accepting," but he did not offer a firm number when pressed by 
a woman who questioned his stance. He criticized former President Joe Biden's 
immigration policies, which he said allowed too many people into the country 
and threatened the social fabric of the United States.

   "When something like that happens, you've got to allow your own society to 
cohere a little bit, to build a sense of common identity, for all the newcomers 
-- the ones who are going to stay -- to assimilate into American culture," 
Vance said. "Until you do that, you've got to be careful about any additional 
immigration, in my view."

   Vance also spoke forcefully about avoiding American deaths in "unnecessary 
foreign conflicts," touting President Donald Trump's Middle East diplomacy and 
the strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, even as the U.S. steps up military 
pressure on Venezuela and strikes boats that the Trump administrations says are 
transporting drugs.

   Asked whether Trump's deployment of the National Guard to Democratic-led 
cities will lead to a future president using that government power against 
conservatives, he said his allies shouldn't be worried about Trump's exercise 
of executive power. He justified Trump's targeting of his political enemies by 
pointing to his arrest during Biden's administration. He was charged with 
illegally keeping classified documents after his first term and attempting to 
subvert the 2020 election he lost, but the charges were dismissed after he was 
elected to his second term a year ago.

   "We cannot be afraid to do something because the left might do it in the 
future," Vance said. "The left is already going to do it regardless of whether 
we do it."

   Vance was introduced by Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, in one of her first public 
appearances since she took over her husband's role leading Turning Point.

   "Being on campus right now, for me, is a spiritual reclaiming of territory," 
she said, reflecting on Kirk's love of visiting universities and his mission to 
move campuses to the right.

   Wearing a white "freedom" shirt like the one her husband wore when he was 
shot, Erika Kirk urged young Christian conservatives to courageously fight for 
their beliefs and not fear the social consequences.

   "If you're worried about losing a friend--I lost my friend," she said. "I 
lost my best friend."