Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio pushed back Sunday as ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl claimed Vice President Kamala Harris was never the “border czar.”

Vance did multiple interviews that aired Sunday criticizing Harris for not giving an interview or press conference since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid on July 21. Vance sparred with Karl about former President Donald Trump’s promise to deport millions of illegal immigrants and referred to Harris as the “border czar.”

“You know she’s not actually — she wasn’t the border czar, was she?” Karl asked.

“Oh, that was what the media called her, she assumed the title,” Vance said. “She had control over a lot of our border policy at a time when they were suspending deportations, let me finish, John, the time they were suspending deportations, they stopped Donald Trump’s remain in Mexico policy, and they re-instituted catch and release,” Vance responded, cutting off Karl’s attempt to interrupt him. “They basically threw open the gates of our country and now we have a ton of fentanyl, a ton of people suffering, and a ton of Americans—” Vance stated before Karl cut him off.

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United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported the Border Patrol had just under 7.3 million encounters with illegal immigrants since the start of fiscal year 2021.

“But how are you going to get 10 to 15, 20 million people out of the country?” Karl asked.

“The first thing you have to do is to stop the bleeding, stop the open border, get Kamala Harris out of there and actually re-implement the remain in Mexico policy, rebuild or finish Donald Trump’s border wall and you do that and you stop the bleeding,” Vance said. “No, you’re right, once you do that, and you stop Kamala Harris’ open border policies, you have to do something with the people who are already here, and I think you take a sequential approach to it. You’re going to have to deport some people. If you’re not willing to deport a lot of people you’re not willing to have a border when there are 20 million illegal aliens in our country.”

Karl questioned if federal authorities would go “door-to-door” requesting papers, but Vance promptly retorted, “This is the wrong attitude towards it, right?”

“There’s 20 million people here illegally, you start with what’s achievable. You do that, and then you go onto what’s achievable from there,” Vance continued. “If you deport a lot of violent criminals and frankly if you make it harder to hire illegal labor, I think you go a lot of the way to solving the illegal immigration problem, but look, President Trump is absolutely right, you cannot have a border unless you’re willing to deport some people. I think it’s interesting that people focus on, well, how do you deport 18 million people? Let’s start with one million. That’s where Kamala Harris has failed and then we can go from there.”

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