OPINION:
Vice President Kamala Harris is the worst possible choice to be handling the crisis on our southern border — she’s demonstrated time and time again that she doesn’t support the work of our nation’s border officers and supports radical immigration policies such as sanctuary cities and decriminalizing border crossings.
In a 2018 interview with MSNBC, then-Sen. Harris traveled to the southern border to announce a “complete overhaul” of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
“I think there’s no question that we’ve got to critically re-examine ICE, and its role, and the way that it is being administered, and the work it is doing,” Ms. Harris told reporter Kasie Hunt. “And we need to probably think about starting from scratch.”
Ms. Harris’ comments sparked the initial discussion within the Democratic Party to completely abolish ICE. Although Ms. Harris said she didn’t support the abolition of the agency, she did feel there needed to be “a complete overhaul of the agency, mission, culture, operations.” She proposed cutting ICE funding and stopping the expansion of ICE facilities as the first steps in her plan.
Her contempt for the agency continued in the confirmation hearing of Ronald Vitiello, the former acting director of ICE, when she compared ICE agents to the Ku Klux Klan.
“Are you aware of the perception that ICE administering its power in a way that is causing fear and intimidation particularly among immigrants and specifically among immigrants coming from Mexico and Central America,” Ms. Harris questioned in 2018, insinuating there was a parallel between ICE agents and the KKK and there needed to be “some work done” to repair that perception.
After the exchange, Mr. Vitiello told The Washington Times that Ms. Harris’ comments were “totally unprofessional” and “unfair.”
“She can say whatever she wants about me personally, but she was trying to tar the whole agency. I think it was a disgrace,” Mr. Vitiello told The Times last year, adding if the Biden-Harris ticket were to win the presidency, it would be a major dent to immigration enforcement.
“CBP’s in a world of hurt. ICE is going to be in a world of hurt if these two prevail,” he said, referring to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Now, Ms. Harris has been tasked to oversee an agency she clearly disdains, with policy visions that undermine and belittle border enforcement and the officers working within those agencies tasked to carry out the law.
Ms. Harris’ record and rhetoric are of open borders and lawlessness.
While Ms. Harris served as district attorney in San Francisco, she authored an opinion that provided legal cover for sanctuary cities to refuse to cooperate with ICE detainer requests, setting the stage for the extreme sanctuary policies in California. She also defended a policy in San Francisco that saw the city turn over undocumented immigrant juveniles to ICE if they were arrested for crimes.
Ms. Harris bragged about these actions last year on the debate stage during the Democratic primary. She also raised her hand in support of decriminalizing illegal border crossings, voiced her opposition to deporting illegal aliens if they had not committed crimes and said she supported giving illegal immigrants free health care.
She called the detention of children at the border during the Trump administration “human rights abuses,” promised that if she became president, she “would not put children in cages” and said it was “inhumane and intolerable” to return unaccompanied minors to their parents in their home countries.
So how exactly is Ms. Harris going to stem the growing crisis at the border? She doesn’t believe in borders. She doesn’t believe in ICE. She doesn’t believe in deportation.
Yet, now she is set to preside over a border surge at rates breaking 20-year records.
She’s unfit to lead this crisis. Period.
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