OPINION:
Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t get it.
When interviewed by NBC’s Today Show this morning, Ms. Harris laughed off the border crisis.
“You haven’t been to the border,” NBC reporter Lester Holt commented, asking if and when she may visit.
“…and I haven’t been to Europe. I don’t understand the point you are making,” Ms. Harris replied, laughing.
It was just Monday that Ms. Harris explained she hasn’t been to the U.S. southern border because she’s not into “grand gestures,” as if her entire first foreign trip to Guatemala and Mexico is anything but.
Ms. Harris understands the political minefield of being the Biden administration’s point person for the ongoing immigration crisis. Rather than have her travel to the U.S. southern border to witness the devastation her policies have brought to American citizens living there, she would rather have photo-ops with foreign leaders and promote humanitarian aid to fix the “root problems” of the migration crisis.
It’s all empty theater. Even when Ms. Harris tells migrants “do not come” to the U.S., the cartels, the smugglers and the migrants themselves all know the U.S. border is wide open. Narcotics are flowing into the U.S., single adults are passing through with no repercussions, and families and children are all relocated to the American interior on the U.S. taxpayers’ dime. As Stephen Miller, former adviser to President Donald J. Trump, has said, the Biden administration’s immigration policies are “the largest mass resettlement operation in U.S. history.”
El Salvador’s president said in March the Biden administration’s promises of free health care are an incentive for illegal immigration. Before Ms. Harris’ arrival, he told CBS News that Mr. Biden’s “family reunification” policies have enabled human trafficking and smuggling. Mexico’s president has referred to Mr. Biden as the “migrant president.” Illegal immigrants are crossing the border, some wearing Biden T-shirts and smiling for the cameras.
There’s no reason to believe border crossings won’t remain the highest they’ve been in two decades. The Biden administration has handicapped the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement so much that deportations have fallen to an all-time low. This fiscal year, it is projected that nearly 184,000 migrant children will cross the border, which would be the highest level ever.
Meanwhile, Ms. Harris is seeking to solve the crisis by providing $4 billion in U.S. aid to Central American countries to improve conditions there so migrants won’t want to make the trek to America.
Even the New York Times this weekend admitted how this policy has failed under the Obama administration. Of the $750 million in aid that was doled out, it’s estimated American contractors took 50% of it to be used on their own expenses, the president of Honduras has been accused of embezzling some of it and rarely did the projects that were actually funded stimulate economic growth.
In order to overcome some of these issues, Mexico wants the Biden administration to give aid directly to the people of Central America. The drawback? That direct financing could be used to pay a smuggler to cross the border worsening the crisis.
There is a simple solution: Return to the Trump-era policies that stemmed illegal immigration like putting an end to catch-and-release, renewing the Remain in Mexico agreement, and empower ICE with the mandate to deport criminals.
One has to only assume that the Biden administration doesn’t want to fix the migration crisis and that Ms. Harris isn’t actually serious about it. It’s their goal to welcome as many illegal immigrants as possible, hook them up with federal welfare benefits, and have an entirely new voter class loyal to them. They don’t care about the Americans footing the bill, how the scourge of new drugs flowing from an open border affects U.S. families, the potential crime in American cities from gangs like MS-13, nor about blue-collar U.S. workers whose jobs and pay prospects will be depressed having to compete with illegal immigrants.
It’s all about putting politics first, and Americans last.
Maybe, Ms. Harris gets it after all.
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