While Vice President Kamala Harris was quick to call for action against gun violence after Wednesday's school shooting in Georgia that killed four and injured several others, she has remained silent on alarming incidents involving armed Venezuelan migrant gangs overtaking apartment buildings, critics charge.
"It's telling that gun violence is only mentioned when it fits a particular narrative," Beverly Hills school board candidate and gun shop owner Russell Stuart told Fox News Digital. "VP Harris is quick to politicize the actions of a mentally ill 14-year-old boy, but remains silent on the very real and dangerous violence being carried out by illegal immigrant gangs in American cities."
"Law abiding citizens deserve safety and security, and their protection should not be sidelined by political gamemanship and deflection," he added.
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Harris lamented the incident on X Thursday and said that her and her husband were "mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short by gun violence at Apalachee High School in Georgia."
"Our hearts are with the students, teachers, and families impacted by this shooting, and we are grateful to the first responders and law enforcement on the scene. This is a senseless tragedy — and it does not have to be this way. We must end the epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all," Harris wrote.
The school shooting in battleground Georgia brought the Second Amendment back into the focal point of the neck-and-neck election race and added to the list of different policy stances between Harris and former President Donald Trump.
The familiar reaction following a school shooting echoed across social media platforms, as proponents for stricter gun control measures reignited their calls and gun rights activists attributed it to a mental health epidemic among teens.
"We need to get to the cause of what's happening with these school shootings," retired Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and congressional candidate John Fabbricatore told Fox News Digital in an interview. "It's not the guns causing the school shootings. Why are these kids thinking that they can go out and kill other human beings?"
"Why do these kids feel that it is the right thing to do to find something to kill other people? That's the main issue. That's the issue that we need to direct our attention to," he said.
He added that Harris is unlikely to bring up the Venezuelan migrant gang apartment takeovers because, "she helped cause this" since she has been in office for the last four years and will avoid bringing attention to what critics have called weakened border security measures.
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Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., a Cuban-born lawmaker, told Fox News Digital that the migrant gangs "are taking over" communities, "yet [Harris] turns a blind eye to the consequences of her disastrous policies."
Additionally, the alleged migrant gang takeover is exacerbated by local sanctuary state laws, Venezuelan-born researcher at the Manhattan Institute, Daniel Di Martino told Fox News Digital.
"It's going to be a very difficult foreign policy issue too, by the way, both for Trump and Biden or Harris, no matter who wins," Di Martino said. "Because most people don't know this, but Venezuelans cannot be deported to Venezuela right now."
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's regime has chosen not to cooperate with deportation requests as of February.
A violent transnational gang from Venezuela allegedly first gained a "stranglehold" on an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, late last year, according to a local report.
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Tren de Aragua gang members took over the Whispering Pines Apartments in 2023, engaging in violent assaults, murder threats, extortion, child prostitution and strongarm tactics, Denver law firm Perkins Coie wrote to city leaders in a nine-page report obtained by CBS News Colorado.
"The evidence we have reviewed indicates that gang members are engaging in flagrant trespass violations, assaults and battery, human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, unlawful firearms possession, extortion, and other criminal activities, often targeting vulnerable Venezuelan and other immigrant populations," T. Markus Funk, a former U.S. Attorney, wrote in the letter.
The Harris campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Fox News Digital's Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
