Nikki Haley town hall on CNN: Live updates

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said she would reinstate the provisions of Title 42 and defund sanctuary cities as part of her plan to fix the US immigration system.

Jeff Ortiz, co-chair of the Story County, Iowa, GOP, asked Haley what her comprehensive plan is to fix the border, acknowledging it’s a “very complex issue.”

Haley referenced her recent visit to the border, saying: “I went to 400 miles of that border. You’re not ready for what I saw.”

Haley said the Biden administration is not letting US Border Patrol do its job, allowing too many people into the country, along with illegal drugs that lead to overdose.

Haley said, if elected, she would institute a national e-verify program for confirming workers’ immigration status, reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy for migrants awaiting immigration proceedings and cut off undocumented immigrants from entitlement programs. She also vowed to reintroduce the provisions of Title 42 and defund sanctuary cities.

“We have got to realize, we are losing Americans by the day and we’ve got to stop whether it’s the fentanyl coming across, whether it’s illegal immigrants coming across, we have got to close the border,” Haley said.

More on Title 42: Despite warnings of a potential crush of migrants that sent thousands of federal personnel to the southern border and US cities scrambling to prepare, the days after the expiration of Title 42 last month saw a much narrower influx of migrants than expected.

The Covid-related border restriction policy had allowed authorities to swiftly turn away migrants at the US-Mexico border.

In the days leading up to its expiration, long lines formed at checkpoints and makeshift encampments proliferated in border communities. But US authorities ultimately saw a 50% drop in the number of migrant encounters along the border over the previous two days compared to earlier in the week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN’s Dana Bash.

Officials warn, however, that it’s too early to say whether the surge in migrants at the border has peaked.

More on “Remain in Mexico”: The Trump-era border policy known as “Remain in Mexico” allowed officials to send non-Mexican migrants to Mexico to await their US immigration court hearings.

CNN’s Nouran Salahieh, Polo Sandoval, Rosa Flores, Andrea Cambron and Priscilla Alvarez contributed reporting to this post.