VPresident Kamala Harris’ new campaign ad features a deep voice over images of border patrol agents, the border wall and confiscated pills and guns. It describes Harris, the former California attorney general, as a “border prosecutor” who has “tackled drug cartels and incarcerated gang members” and says that if elected president, Harris will hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl smuggling and human trafficking.
Polls show immigration is a weak point for Harris with voters. Republicans have labeled Harris Biden’s “border czar,” trying to blame her for the country’s immigration problems and exaggerating her diplomatic task as vice president to reduce the causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Republicans have targeted Harris’s new running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, who signed a law in Minnesota allowing undocumented people to apply for a driver’s license.
Rather than shy away from the issue, Harris is hitting back. She alludes to her record in law enforcement and says Trump wanted to worsen conditions at the border to improve his chances of being elected when he told Republicans to pull out of a deal that would have provided additional border patrol and immigration agents. “Donald Trump doesn’t care about border security, he only cares about himself,” she said on July 30.
The new ad marks a change of tone for Harris on the border. As a Democratic senator, Harris vigorously led the fight against Trump’s hardline immigration policies. She protested Trump’s Muslim travel ban, and when the Trump administration began separating children from their parents at the border, she called for the resignation of Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, saying the country needs to “think about starting over on our immigration enforcement system.”
As vice president, Harris worked to secure $5.2 billion in investments in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to boost local economies and fight corruption, hoping to persuade people living there not to migrate north to the United States. At a press conference in Guatemala in 2021, she told migrants planning to make the dangerous journey to the United States: “Don’t come.”
In recent months, Harris has been part of the Biden administration’s efforts to implement stricter measures at the border to curb illegal migration. In May, Biden decided to limit the number of asylum cases being heard at the border. This shift to the right by his administration was aimed at reducing the high number of people being brought to the U.S. southern border by smugglers.
This step is already having an effect. The number of arrests at the border has fallen from 250,000 in December to 83,000 in July.
The new campaign ad ends with the line: “Border security is tough. So is Kamala Harris.”
