OPINION:
Melody Waldecker had just walked into a 7-Eleven this past weekend when she noticed a person getting into her car. When she tried to stop him, he hit her with the vehicle. She died at the scene.
Jose Aguilar-Martinez was arrested and charged with carjacking and killing the 54-year-old mother of four and grandmother of eight. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he is a “getaway.” To be clear, getaways are immigrants who are spotted crossing illegally by Border Patrol agents who are too occupied to respond or picked up by cameras and sensors. Mr. Aguilar-Martinez is from El Salvador.
Vice President Kamala Harris shares the blame for Melody Waldecker’s death. President Biden announced in March 2021 that Ms. Harris would lead the administration’s efforts to address the root cause of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. She has failed.
On March 24, 2021, Mr. Biden said, “In addition to that, there’s about five other major things she’s handling, but I’ve asked her, the VP, today — because she’s the most qualified person to do it — to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that help — are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border.”
Ms. Harris was asked by the president to lead the administration’s efforts to deal with migration at our southern border, where millions of people have entered the United States illegally. The results have been a disaster.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there have been 6.4 million encounters outside official ports of entry along the border during the Biden administration. The yearly average is more than four times that of the Trump administration. In addition, agents registered more than 1.6 million encounters at official ports of entry which were considered “inadmissible,” yet some were allowed to enter the country. There were also nearly 400,000 “getaways” in the most recent fiscal year — which is twice the highest annual total during President Donald Trump’s time in office.
When she was in the Senate, Ms. Harris signed a letter urging fellow senators to reject the request from the Trump administration to fund more Border Patrol agents. As a 2020 candidate for president, she said that illegal border crossings should be decriminalized and said she would “think about” abolishing ICE.
Ms. Harris was the point person for the Biden administration on immigration. Its failed policies made it easier for Jose Aguilar-Martinez to enter the country illegally. Melody Waldecker is dead because of those failed policies.
I don’t care about her weird laugh or her word-salad answers. I don’t care about memes filled with coconuts or how radical her stepdaughter is on social media. I care about how bad her policies are for America and how much worse they would be if she became president.
Voters do, too. Respect them enough to talk about what they care about: high prices, public safety and border security.
During the Biden-Harris tenure, real wages and benefits have fallen by 3.6%, inflation (which drives high prices) has been higher than wages for 26 straight months, interest rates hit their highest levels in 23 years, and over one-third of families are behind on their bills.
Prices are up 20%. A gallon of gas costs about $1.25 more in Wisconsin. Housing costs are up nearly 30%. That means young homebuyers like my son and daughter-in-law are paying nearly $1,000 more per month on their mortgage. People are rightly upset. They don’t need four more years of this pain.
Safety is also a concern. Ms. Harris posted an appeal for funding to help post bail for those involved in the “protests” in Minnesota at the height of the riots that followed the start of the Black Lives Matter movement. She told Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that she was proud of him.
The public later learned that police were responding to a 911 call from Mr. Blake’s estranged girlfriend and that Mr. Blake had a warrant for his arrest based on charges of third-degree felony sexual assault and disorderly conduct. He was shocked with Tasers by two police officers; authorities say he was resisting arrest and appeared to be reaching for a knife when an officer discharged his weapon to protect himself. Mr. Blake later pleaded guilty to two lesser charges, yet then-Sen. Harris said she was proud of him.
Kamala Harris’ policies will cost us more and they will make us less secure. That’s what we should be talking about. We owe it to families across the country — particularly the family of Melody Waldecker.
• Scott Walker is president of Young America’s Foundation and served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019.
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