Op-Ed: Kamala Harris is the Border Czar. She Failed at Her Job – Opinion

I have been a Border Patrol agent since 1997 and have served under Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden. From 2013 until earlier this year, I was the chair of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC). I have worked with U.S. presidents, members of Congress, and elected officials from across the political spectrum to find ways to strengthen our border security and give our Border Patrol agents the tools they need to keep America safe.

Let me make something clear: Vice President Kamala Harris is the “border czar,” and while she tries to deny that fact, pretends to care about border security, and distances herself from her failures, her actions over the past four years demonstrate a complete disregard for the human suffering that occurs every day on our nation’s southern border.

My job as president of the NBPC was to represent the interests of my agents, both politically and officially. For years, the National Border Patrol Council remained nonpartisan in presidential politics, but because of President Obama’s failures in his second term, in 2016 we felt the need to thoroughly evaluate the plans of our future elected officials to secure our border. We vetted all candidates, including Democrats.

Ultimately, we supported President Trump because we saw someone who would cut through the red tape in Washington to implement tangible policies that combat illegal immigration. We were right. President Trump brought illegal border crossings to historic lows not once, but twice. He began building a wall along 400 miles of the border, and illegal crossings dropped by more than 87% in areas where the wall was completed. He deployed nearly 5,000 troops to provide much-needed support to our Border Patrol agents, and Mexico deployed tens of thousands of their own soldiers and National Guardsmen to prevent border crossings on their side.

Under President Trump, our borders were secure, our police were supported, migrants were no longer threatened by drug cartels, and our country was safer.

Fast forward to 2021. I wanted President Biden and Vice President Harris to succeed, and I did my best to work with their administration. When Vice President Harris was tasked with leading our nation’s response to the worsening border crisis—through Secretary Mayorkas, who assured me that all policy, program, and operational suggestions would be passed down the chain—I presented her with several policy proposals to help reduce the flow of migrants, prevent cartels from exploiting innocent people for financial gain, and stop deadly fentanyl from entering our communities. She shot them down.

Instead of addressing the cartels and the human devastation they cause to both migrants and American citizens, Border Commissioner Harris attempted to dismiss the border crisis as a climate and political instability issue, despite the fact that people from over 160 nationalities have attempted to enter the country during my tenure as agent.

Since then, we’ve seen the results of her inaction play out before our eyes. For years, independent coyotes paid cartels to move migrants through the territory they controlled along the border, and the criminal syndicates stuck to their traditional line of business: drug smuggling, which was far more profitable. Cartel leaders, who commit human atrocities to fund their quest for power and corruption, now rake in $13 billion in annual profits, up from $500 million in 2018—and revenue is only part of the story.

We all know about the horrific crimes illegal immigrants commit against Americans, but many, including Harris, are unaware of the suffering of migrants we see every day. We see crying girls showing signs of rape and abuse. We see migrants being robbed of everything they own. We see smugglers locking desperate people in vehicles to be burned alive, and car crashes that leave victims strewn across the road.

Unfortunately, Harris has not seen the harsh reality of the humanitarian crisis at our border because she only visited the border once, and in a “politically safe” sector. She only cares about optics, not results.

I have worked with Vice President Harris, Secretary Mayorkas, and other officials in the Harris-Biden administration. Harris knows that the border crisis is a direct result of her and Biden’s policies, and she knows the solutions, but she refuses to implement them. I have wondered whether she is so power-hungry that she is willing to deny reality to appease her political base, or whether she is simply dangerously incompetent. I have concluded that she is both.

The contrast is clear. Vice President Harris wants to rewrite history and deny the facts now, but the truth is that she owns this border chaos and has made it clear through her actions that she will not do what is necessary to keep our communities safe if elected.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

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