MATTHEWS: Kamala Harris’ latest border visit isn’t fooling anyone

As we enter the final full month of campaigning before the November elections, the presidential candidates and their supporters are hitting the gas and pulling out all the stops to motivate voters to get to the polls in one of the most consequential elections we will ever have. see in our lives.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ list included a visit to the southern border, only the second visit she has made during her vice presidency, despite serving as President Joe Biden’s border czar since March 2021.

Advertisements

Last Friday, Harris made the trip with Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) to Douglas, Arizona, where she looked and sounded like a fish out of water.

She met with Border Patrol officials (but not regular border agents), took part in campaign-worthy photo ops and gave a short speech in which she came across as a very different candidate from the one she was in 2019 when she fought for Hispanic votes and unapologetically supported open borders .

“Those who unlawfully cross our borders will be apprehended, removed, and banned from re-entering for five years,” Harris stated in her remarks. “We will pursue more serious criminal charges against repeat offenders.”

Even CBS News noted the “dramatic” change in her rhetoric compared to her failed presidential bid in 2019.

“Harris’s comments marked a dramatic departure from her more liberal immigration positions during the 2020 campaign, when she expressed support for decriminalizing unauthorized border crossings and looser asylum policies,” the network reported.

The Associated Press noticed this too.

“Harris walks the US-Mexico border as she works to take a tougher stance on migration,” was the headline of their story during her visit, with “project” being the key word, of course.

Why exactly is Harris visiting the southern border at this late date? Because polls show her opponent, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, is far more trusted to handle the Biden border crisis than she is.

Furthermore, the surveys show that illegal immigration is a top issue for voters this election cycle. Trump has made it a central issue in his campaign for president, while Harris is just catching up, hoping to draw voters’ attention to the issue.

I think few if any people will be fooled by Kamala 2.0’s illegal immigration slip-ups, but for anyone who does, remember that Harris said in 2020: “Trump’s border wall is a complete waste of taxpayer dollars and has won.” It doesn’t make us safer.”

“The president’s medieval vanity project will not stop transnational gangs,” she also said of Trump’s border wall that same year.

Harris now supports its construction.

This topic isn’t the only thing she’s turned to in recent weeks since becoming the Democratic nominee. But it is one of the most critical, as reports come in daily of illegal immigrants, especially those who crossed the border under Biden-Harris, committing violent crimes (some of the victims being children).

Some have argued that Harris’ visit to the border is a big mistake because it gives Republicans, including Trump, a chance to remind voters of her past far-left positions.

“She has wanted a more permissive immigration structure throughout her career,” Republican strategist Scott Jennings recently told CNN. “When she previously ran for president, she wanted to decriminalize border crossings.”

“At her heart, she wants a more liberal, tolerant immigration structure,” Jennings also rightly noted, something voters deeply concerned about the border crisis in November should keep in mind.

North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pen name Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.