Fox News Digital spoke to AZ GOP congressional candidate Abe Hamadeh and GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda who warned that transnational gangs are coming across the border.
PHOENIX – Abe Hamadeh, a Republican running for Congress in Arizona’s 8th Congressional district, told Fox News Digital that ‘radical’ Biden-Harris immigration policies are leading to increased gang violence in the key swing state of Arizona that is driving voters toward former President Trump.
“The border is the number one issue for everybody,” Hamadeh told Fox News Digital. “Every time I’m in my district, it’s the number one issue people talk about because they see the effects of the border crisis every single day, and we’ve had nighttime burglary, robberies happening in Arizona, in Maricopa County, particularly, these Chilean, illegal immigrants from Chile, this Chilean gang that were breaking into people’s homes.”
Hamadeh continued, “So you’re starting to see it’s not just crime on the streets, in the inner cities, but now it’s going into the sort of suburbs and that’s why the border, everywhere I go, it’s the number one issue.”
Earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported on a home theft ring operated by members of a South American criminal gang that has been targeting high-end homes in the Phoenix area, resulting in the arrest of three Chilean citizens living illegally in the United States, authorities said.
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The gang, which has been referred to as “tourist burglars” and the “dinnertime thieves”, has committed crimes all across Phoenix, and the suburbs of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Chandler, Gilbert and Peoria.
“People are concerned, rightfully so,” Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda told Fox News Digital. “Take Scottsdale as an example. Scottsdale is a nice little suburb in Maricopa County and there is this huge increase in homelessness. There was a series of home robberies and the police said it was a Chilean gang. So a gang from Chile came and started hitting houses in Scottsdale on a pretty routine basis and they were calling them like dinnertime robberies and you’re sitting down to dinner after you worked all day and now here comes the Chilean gang to rob your house.”
“This is crazy.”
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Migrant gangs have garnered national attention in recent months, particularly in Aurora, Colorado, where a Venezuelan gang has been tied to numerous crimes in the city.
Hamadeh told Fox News Digital that the “radical” immigration policies of the Biden-Harris administration are playing a major role in the increase of gang activity in Maricopa County.
“Everybody knows it’s a joke,” Hamadeh said about the immigration policy put forward by Harris during her recent speech along the southern border. “We can’t escape the commercials that are on constantly, she’s walking on our southern border with Trump’s border wall which we all know she opposed. She’s the most radical person ever to run for president.”
“Everybody who’s law enforcement, Border Patrol, anybody who knows what’s going on is supporting President Trump because Kamala Harris is in a position of power and has done nothing about it. So we all know that this is her attempt at trying to just, you know, get votes. But we know that the radical left is adamant about keeping our border open, and it’s creating a national security risk.”
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That national security threat, Hamadeh told Fox News Digital, will ultimately result in voters supporting Trump in a key swing state where 11 electoral votes could decide the election.
” In my district, particularly, you know, we have all these Taiwanese companies moving into my district for the microchip industry, it’s 50 to $100 billion. That’s creating a national security risk,” Hamadeh said. “It’s great for economic development, but we have an open border, and you’ve got 30,000 Communist Chinese who have crossed our southern border last year. Unvetted.”
“That’s a prime intelligence target. I’m a former military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and we’re putting a target right now here in Arizona for some of these foreign adversaries to take advantage of. Just last week, we discovered that Iran or somebody may have snuck through ten shoulder-fired missiles possibly. I mean, we’re talking about the United States. How are we not securing our border? It seems like the easiest concept for everybody to understand and that’s where, in my district that’s why it is the number one issue and Kamala Harris is failing at it and that’s why she’s going to lose the election.”
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report
