KRISTEN WELKER: Another big topic in this race is immigration. There has been a lot of discussion about Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation. According to one estimate, more than 11 million U.S. citizens live in households with mixed immigration status, including more than 5 million children. If you and former President Trump were elected, would you separate families as a part of your mass deportation effort?
JD VANCE: Well, we have to start with the foundational issue here which is we have 25 million illegal aliens in this country right now because Kamala Harris has refused to do her job…
WELKER: I have…very quickly, DHS says it's much lower- closer to 8 million. Where do you get the 25 million from?
VANCE: I think the 25 million are the people that should have been deported that maybe weren’t deported, plus you add another 12 to 15 million that have come in since Kamala Harris -- look, whatever the number is.
WELKER: DHS disputes that number for the record. They say it's closer to 8 to 10 million people. Please continue.
VANCE: But I think there are reasons to think that DHS is underestimating. Whatever the real number is, it's way too high, right? It’s millions upon millions of illegal immigrants that have come just since Kamala Harris became the border czar a few years ago. The first thing…
WELKER: She was put in charge of the root causes of migration.
VANCE: Well the root causes of migration I would say, Kristen, is that Kamala Harris refuses to do her job as border czar.
