JD Vance spends long weekend in Southern California, talking immigration and raising funds

Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance is spending a long weekend in Southern California, tackling the issue of immigration on the Mexican border and stumping for funds at two campaign events.

On Sunday evening former President Donald Trump’s running mate was scheduled to speak at a campaign reception in Los Angeles as part of three-day fund-raising swing. Expected to join him was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently ended his independent campaign and endorsed Trump.

According to its website, the event was sold out. Details for the fundraiser, which was closed to the press, were not released.

The L.A. event is hosted by tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist David Sacks and his wife Jacqueline, who runs a children’s clothing brand. Sacks is a major Trump donor and part of a growing group of Silicon Valley executives supporting the former president’s bid for reelection.

Former U.S. Senator from Georgia Kelly Loeffler and husband Jeffrey Sprecher, who is the CEO of financial services company Intercontinental Exchange, were listed on the invitation as co-hosts.

Tickets for the Los Angeles fundraiser began at $3,300 to attend the reception. For $15,000 attendees could get photo-op with Vance; for $25,000 they could get a photo and access to a roundtable discussion with Vance; and for $50,000 they could get a photo, roundtable seat and be listed as a member of the host committee.

Chair of the L.A. County Republican Party Tim O’Reilly said he was very excited by Vance’s visit and hopes it inspires SoCal Republicans to support the campaign and other down ballot GOP candidates.

“JD is the real deal,” he said. “He epitomizes the American dream of coming from nothing and through hard work, sweat and talent making something great. That’s what we all want for all of our fellow Americans, especially for our own children.”

On Friday, Sept. 6, Vance payed a visit to San Diego, the hometown of his wife, Usha. In the morning, he visited the San Diego-Mexico border to highlight the lightning rod issue of immigration.

While at the border, he vowed that Trump would reimplement Title 42, known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

Title 42 was an emergency health order that allowed U.S. officials to turn away migrants at U.S.-Mexico border on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Under the policy, migrants seeking asylum in America had to stay in Mexico until their asylum case had been processed.

“You’ve got to be willing to send people back who come across that border illegally,” Vance told reporters at the border, adding that America must “end the asylum fraud.”

Title 42 was implemented under Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic. President Biden initially continued the program, before cancelling it in May 2023 when he declared the end of the national COVID emergency.

“Our Border Patrol agents want nothing more than to do their job,” Vance wrote on X, sharing a video of his visit. He said the Biden administration “made that impossible” by ending Trump administration programs that limited access to asylum and forced migrants to wait in Mexico for asylum hearings.

Vance was joined at the border by San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond and Border Patrol agents.

Vance’s trip coincided with congressional hearings on immigration. Not far away, Rep. Darrell Issa hosted the meeting at the Santee City Council chambers. He said it was one of several held around the country over the last two years for the committee to try to gain a perspective on the “growing crisis” at the border, talking to individuals “who will understand and who are impacted by it,” the Congress member said.

Speakers included the mayors of Vista and Santee, a local border security advocate, a Dulzura resident and the district attorney and the undersheriff of Riverside County — all people who either live in or represent areas in Issa’s district of eastern San Diego County and portions of southern Riverside County.

The testimony ranged from concerns about the rising amount of fentanyl smuggled across the border to challenges related to unauthorized migration.

Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin pointed to the large amounts of fentanyl coming across the border, helping fuel a deadly overdose epidemic throughout the country.

In fiscal 2023, about 26,700 pounds of fentanyl were seized along the southwestern border, an increase of about 150 percent from 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

“We urgently need comprehensive and tough federal action and robust initiatives to address this issue effectively,” Hestrin said.

Hestrin said that several major freeways in his county have become “known drug-trafficking corridors, providing direct routes from the border to Southern California and beyond.”

“The state’s southern border has become a critical entry point for fentanyl entering the U.S., largely driven by the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, which dominate the Mexican states adjacent to California,” he said. “Although we know the quantity of fentanyl seized, we don’t know how much gets in, but we can only assume that those numbers are incredibly large.”

Riverside Undersheriff Don Sharp said that the arrival of large numbers of migrants at the border has caused border agents to abandon their normal duties of protecting the border from smuggling.

“When our Border Patrol agents are diverted from their proper duties, and the border is wide open, there will always be larger drug and human smuggling loads,” he said. “The risk of detection and loss of illicit contraband becomes less, and the shrinking risk is easily worth the rewards for cartels and criminals.”

On Friday evening, Vance spoke at fundraiser in Rancho Sante Fe hosted by Bob Shillman, the founder and former CEO of the Cognex Corp., a machine vision systems manufacturer, and his wife June. Tickets for that event started at $3,300 per person and ranged up to $50,000.

The maximum individual donation allowed for a presidential campaign is $3,300 per person. Donations above that will go to the Republican National Committee and individual state’s Republican parties.

The Harris-Walz campaign has also been dipping into Southern California wallets. On Wednesday, Sept. 5, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke at a fundraiser hosted by oncologist Patricia Gordon in Hancock Park. In August, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke at a union event in Los Angeles and a fundraiser in Newport Beach.

Currently, the Harris-Walz campaign holds the edge in fundraising. The Harris campaign and Democratic National Committee reported raising a combined $361 million in August, leaving Harris with $404 million cash on hand, the campaign reported Friday.

Trump’s campaign team said on that it and the Republican Party raised $130 million in August and had $295 million cash on hand at the end of the month.

Staff Writer Alexandra Mendoza and City News Service contributed to this article