Harris is doing an unprecedented political make-over, unlike anyone since … since … uh … ever. She is literally reversing herself on every stated policy position in the past – and claims that her “values” have not changed. That can only be true if her only value is unprincipled pragmatism.
She is taking a two-faced Janus approach. When she says, “we are not going back,” she is referring to examining all those things she said in the past. There is the against-and-for fracking fiasco. The defund policing policy. A soft-on-crime prosecutor who is now the reincarnation of one-time New York District Attorney Thomas Dewey. And there are others.
There are so many, I may have to do a future commentary on the broader issue. But for now, I am focusing on her immigration flipping and flopping.
Let us start by looking back at the old Kamala Harris. She was a member in good standing of the open border Democrats. The old Harris was a staunch supporter of sanctuary cities and counties. She was in favor of providing a wide range of benefits for illegal aliens – providing greater incentive to cross the border illegally. She wanted to curtail the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – tracking down the hardened criminals among the illegal border crossers. She called for the decriminalization of illegal border crossing. She supported Biden’s allowing Title 42 – when it was keeping migrants in Mexico — to lapse.
Harris was fully on board with President Biden’s open border policy. She showed no concern when Biden stopped the construction of the southern border wall and on day one issued Executive Orders reversing those of President Trump that had actually reduced the number of illegal border crossers.
Biden chose Harris as his border czar – knowing she would continue her reputation for not accomplishing much. Harris supporters now claim that she was not a border Czar in the broadest sense but was limited to giving away taxpayer money to Central American nations as bribes to reduce the number of their people heading north. We did not see a lot of activity even on the limited role.
In keeping with her assignment, Harris did make a trip to Guatemala and made one visit to the quietest location on the border for a photo op. The alleged focus on Central America was a lie or an absurdity. People from more than 40 nations around the world have been illegally crossing the border – including terrorists from the Middle East. Biden signed an Executive Order facilitating the acceptance of Venezuelans crossing the border – resulting in a spike in drug and gang-related crimes in communities in which illegal Venezuelan border crossers are relocated.
As a result of the Biden/Harris border policies, there has been a RECORD NUMBER of illegal border crossers since they took office. That is the result of policy – the Biden/Harris policy.
In an attempt to turn the issue around politically, they have created the narrative that Trump and the Republicans have opposed immigration reform for political reasons – referring to a bipartisan agreement in the Senate that never even became an introduced bill.
As the Democrat narrative goes, the idea was defeated at the order of Trump to keep the immigration controversy alive during the campaign. That is the narrative, not the facts.
The first FACT to be considered is that a bill that was PASSED by the Republican majority in the House and sent to the Senate almost two years ago – the only immigration bill to have actually been passed by a chamber of Congress. Instead of being taken up and considered by the Senate, Chuck Schumer, using his power as Senate Majority Leader, simply refused to allow the bill to be considered – not even assigned to a committee for consideration. Schumer killed the bill following consultation with the Biden White House.
With regard to the so-called bi-partisan proposal, it was not introduced because it would have been debated and defeated. Trump’s opinion of the bill was irrelevant. It was a very … very … very bad bill.
The proposal would not have required ANY border security action by the President until the number of illegal crossers reached 5,000 per day. That would allow 4999 to arrive every day without consequences. That is Approximately 1.8 million illegals every year – or 7.3 million in four years. That is close to the current record number under Biden’s open border policy. Rather than drastically reduce the number of illegal border crossers, the proposal would make the high number the accepted norm.
To put this in some perspective, we need to look at two figures – 1000 and 200,000.
The first is the number of illegal border crossers that President Obama’s Director of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said was an unsustainable CRISIS LEVEL. And the proposal favored by Biden — and even Harris to this day according to her campaign statements –would support legislation that would set the acceptable level at more than seven times the crisis level.
The second figure, 200,000, is the approximate number of illegal border crossers entering the United States in 2020, the last year of the Trump administration. The annual number of illegal border crossers soared after Biden reversed Trump’s border policies and allowed Title 42 – that blocked millions from entering — to lapse. In the last year of the Trump administration, there were 137.000 gotaways – a particularly dangerous group. In 2022 – the first full year under Biden policies – there were 600,000 gotaways.
Harris has avoided responding to questions about her past policies – or to present the American voters specific detailed policies in most matters – just platitudes. But … she has been specific in this one case. She would attempt to resurrect a very bad proposal and sign it into law – essentially making crisis level illegal border crossing the norm.
Harris is in lockstep with the left-wing Democrat’s policy of open borders – and even a sham bill that would institutionalize the current level of illegal border crossings rather than reduce them.
When Harris is not flip-flopping, she is flimflamming.
So, there ‘tis.