Karrin Taylor Robson, Republican candidate for Arizona governor, listens as former Vice President Mike Pence speaks to reporters at the National Border Patrol Council office in Tucson.

 Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star

Mike Pence came to Tucson Friday on his second visit to Southern Arizona in six weeks to talk about the U.S.-Mexico border.

β€œWe have a crisis on our southern border of historic proportions,” the former vice president said in a campaign stop to the National Border Patrol Council in Tucson on behalf of Republican gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson.

Pence had also campaigned for Taylor Robson earlier Friday in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria. The events took place hours before former President Donald Trump was scheduled to hold a campaign rally Friday night in Prescott Valley for a competing GOP candidate fo governor, Kari Lake, and the dueling Pence-Trump endorsements received much national media attention this week.

In Peoria, Pence spoke approvingly of the Trump administration and gave no indication of the political rupture with his former running mate, The Arizona Republic reported. As the Republic noted, the appearance came a day after the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol dramatically showed that Trump did nothing as a mob hunted for Pence.

In Tucson, Pence repeated the same talking points of his last visit to the area, on June 13 in Cochise County, including the claim that the border was the most secure during the Trump administration it has ever been, without saying what metric he was relying on.

Pence, Gov. Doug Ducey, who accompanied him, Taylor Robson and the president of the border agents union, Brandon Judd, spoke for about 20 minutes and then left without taking questions.

The former vice president spoke alongside Gov. Doug Ducey and Republican gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson at the National Border Patrol Council in Tucson on Friday.

Pence is backing Taylor Robson, a lawyer, housing developer and former member of the Arizona Board of Regents, in the state’s Aug. 2 GOP gubernatorial primary. She is also endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council and Ducey. Ducey is term-limited by law and not seeking a third term as governor.

Taylor Robson and Lake, a former television anchor, are considered the front-runners in the race that also features Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott Neely and Paola Tulliani-Zen.

The number of apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border, from the beginning of fiscal year 2017 through fiscal year 2020, during the majority of the Trump administration, was higher than during either term of the Obama administration.

There were more than 1.9 million apprehensions of migrants crossing the border during the Trump years. Since President Joe Biden took office, there have been nearly 3 million apprehensions at the southern border, which includes a higher number of repeat crossings. Under Title 42, a public-health policy enacted because of the pandemic, the Biden administration has immediately ejected more than 1.5 million migrants from the country.

Pence, Ducey and other Republicans regularly refer to the influx of migrants at the border as β€œBiden’s border crisis,” pointing to some of the differences in border enforcement actions between Biden and Trump.

β€œIt’s extraordinary to think that the Biden administration inherited the most secure border in American history,” Pence said. β€œAnd because of decisions that President Biden made from the first day of his administration, to stop construction of the border wall, to stop the Remain in Mexico policy, and the overall message, they’ve created a humanitarian crisis that is causing suffering and hardship on both sides of our border.”

The number of migrants being apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border has steadily increased since the summer of 2020 to record levels in March and April of this year. Across the globe, migration is at record levels as many countries deal with the effects of climate change, economic fallout after the pandemic and rising levels of violence.

Some Republican governors, like Ducey, have begun taking a more active role in border security. Arizona’s 2023 budget had $544 million for border security, including $335 million for border barrier construction, which will be a combination of a β€œvirtual wall” and barriers around critical infrastructure not directly on the border, since the Arizona-Mexico border is almost entirely federal, tribal and private land. As well, $209 million of that is for a β€œborder security fund’’ for things like aid to local sheriffs and prosecutors and $15 million to transport those who entered Arizona seeking asylum to other states.

Ducey has bused over 1,000 migrants to Washington, D.C., since May, following Texas’ example.

Taylor Robson said securing the border takes resources and willpower, and that President Trump and Vice President Pence showed it can be done. She did not mention the nearly 2 million people apprehended at the border during the Trump administration.

β€œThe security situation at our southern border was the best it has been in memory until the Biden administration came on the scene,” Taylor Robson said. β€œBy now we all know what happened next. Joe Biden had rolled out the proverbial welcome mat during his campaign, and he made the situation worse upon taking office by halting construction of the wall and repealing policies like the remain in Mexico policy that discouraged so many crossers.”

Taylor Robson says if elected governor, her border policies would include:

Increasing the National Guard troops on the border;

Calling an emergency legislative session to increase state-level penalties for human and drug trafficking, creating a state-level trespassing offense for crossing the border, and providing additional funding for the β€œBorder Strike Force,” Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement β€” on top of the more than half-a-billion dollars already budgeted;

Constructing more border wall;

Ensuring the Border Strike Force and local law enforcement agencies have β€œthe latest surveillance and other technology” to interdict cartels;

Cutting state funding to any county, city or town that enacts a sanctuary policy;

And entering a compact with border states and other states in order to share National Guard and other resources.

Ducey has already put in place most of these policy and funding measures.

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Contact reporter Danyelle Khmara at dkhmara@tucson.com or 573-4223. On Twitter: @DanyelleKhmara