Tim Scott to visit southern border amid surge in arrests

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) will visit the U.S. southern border Friday as the country grapples with a recent surge of migrant arrests, his campaign announced.

Scott will head to Yuma, Ariz., on Friday to visit the border and later hold a roundtable with leaders in the community. His campaign says he’ll talk about his plans to eliminate illegal immigration and tackle cartel groups. 

The visit will mark Scott’s first visit to the border as a 2024 GOP candidate. 

“If you don’t control your back door at your house, it’s not your house. If you don’t control your southern border, it might not be our country,” Scott said in a statement. “That’s why on my first day as Commander-in-Chief, the strongest nation on Earth will stop retreating from our own southern border.”

The country has seen a recent spike in arrests at the southern border. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that there were more than 130,000 arrests made in July at the southern border, according to preliminary U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures that the newspaper obtained early.

In comparison, close to 100,000 arrests were made in June, showing a spike of more than 30 percent between the two months.

Scott is not the only candidate this cycle to visit the southern border. Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley traveled to the southern border in early April, making stops in between San Antonio and Eagle Pass, Texas.

Scott is not the only candidate this cycle to visit the southern border. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) traveled to Eagle Pass, Texas, in late June to visit the southern border as a candidate.

Surveys largely show DeSantis polling second, though Scott has started to gain some momentum in some of the early state polling. 

Updated at 10:47 am ET.