Kamala Harris Promises Status Quo During her Trip to the U.S.-Mexico Border

FAIR Take | September 2024

Late last Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris visited the southern border near Douglas, Arizona, which lies in Cochise County, southeast of Tucson. After a brief tour of the Douglas port of entry, she addressed a campaign rally at a local community college where she pledged, if President, to keep the current asylum policies in place, to grant amnesty to a broad array of illegal aliens – including long-term residents, “dreamers,” and farmworkers – and to enact the Senate border bill that was voted down twice this year.

The visit is Ms. Harris’ second trip to the border since becoming Vice President. It marks the latest effort from the Biden-Harris Administration to rebrand itself as strong on border security in the leadup to the presidential election.

The Vice President’s program at the border was short, lasting less than an hour. At the Douglas port of entry, the Vice President spoke with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents and received a briefing on the massive amount of fentanyl that has entered the U.S. in recent years. Since January 2021, nearly 70,000 pounds of fentanyl has been seized being smuggled across our borders, with the vast majority of that coming at the southern border.

After talking to CBP agents, Harris made remarks before a campaign rally at Cochise College in nearby Douglas. There, she discussed the fentanyl epidemic, touting her experience as California Attorney General as she promised to increase enforcement efforts to block fentanyl smuggling. According to Harris, “[s]topping transnational criminal organizations and strengthening our border is not new to me, and it is a longstanding priority of mine.”

The Vice President also vowed continued support for the Senate border package that failed earlier this year after being negotiated in secret by Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), and James Lankford (R-Okla.), along with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. But contrary to claims that the Senate border bill will ease the border crisis, it would actually codify the current disastrous policies into law and give government agencies (and NGOs) hundreds of millions of dollars to process and release illegal aliens more quickly.  In short, the Senate border bill would do nothing to reduce the flow of illegal aliens to our southern border, but would sanction the release of most of those who arrive—just as we are witnessing now.

In her speech, Vice President Harris also promised to keep President Biden’s June executive action in place. That order did little more than reinforce the administration’s 2023 asylum rule, which limits, but still allows illegal aliens to claim asylum between ports of entry. However, as FAIR detailed earlier this month, the proclamation will do little to discourage illegal immigration because all it does is steer large groups of illegal aliens towards the ports of entry, where there are no limits on claiming asylum (or requesting parole, for that matter). 

Finally, Vice President Harris wrapped up her speech by returning to her long-established record of promoting amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens already here. Specifically, she said that “we need clear legal pathways for people seeking to come into our country” and called on Congress to create a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens, including “dreamers” and farmworkers. Those statements align closely with others she has made going back years, including supporting amnesty proposals during her time as vice president and the administration’s unlawful parole-in-place program for illegal alien spouses of U.S. citizens. Notably, Harris’ repeated pushes for amnesty and expanded “lawful pathways” utterly fail to mention that there is already a pathway for migrants to obtain citizenship: it’s called a green card, and millions of foreign nationals apply for one each year in the hope of coming to the U.S. legally.

In response to the Vice President’s trip, congressional Republicans and the Border Patrol Union, the National Border Patrol Council (NPBC), pushed back sharply. According to Congressman Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), whose district runs along the border: “For three and a half years, the Vice President has been in a position to address this crisis, but instead she has ignored it…As a result, border districts, like mine, have suffered under her lack of leadership.” Congressman Darrel Issa (R-Calif.), who represents another border district near San Diego, echoed those sentiments, arguing that, “Kamala owes America an apology, not a photo op.”

On Friday, the Border Patrol Union released a similar statement criticizing Ms. Harris. “Vice president Harris has ignored the border problem she created for over three years. She goes down there for 20 minutes for a photo op and decides to repeat some of the things the NPBC has said before. But again, where has she been the last 3 1/2 years?”

It remains to be seen whether Ms. Harris’ new message on border security will resonate with Americans, who consider immigration one of the most important issues this election. During the Vice President’s time as “Border Czar,” the United States has witnessed ten million illegal border crossings, nearly 400 potential terrorists apprehended attempting to cross illegally, and dramatic increases in the amounts of illicit narcotics being smuggled into the country. In her visit to Douglas, Arizona, the Vice President promised to maintain the same policies that led to this result plus grant amnesty to most of the illegal aliens already residing in the U.S.

See what local ranchers and National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art Del Cueto along with Congressman Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) had to say during Kamala Harris’ border visit in their county: