VPresident Kamala Harris’ new campaign ad features a deep voice speaking over images of Border Patrol agents, the border wall and seized pills and guns. It describes Harris, the former attorney general of California, as a “border state attorney” who has “taken on drug cartels and arrested gang members,” and says that Harris, if elected president, will hire thousands of more border agents and will suppress fentanyl. smuggling and human trafficking.
Polls show that immigration is a weak spot for Harris with voters. Republicans have labeled Harris as Biden’s “border czar,” trying to pin blame for the country’s immigration struggles on her and exaggerating her diplomatic task as vice president to reduce the root causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. . Republicans targeted Harris’ new running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, who signed a bill in Minnesota that allows people without authorization to be in the country to apply for driver’s licenses.
Instead of avoiding the issue, Harris is fighting back. She is emphasizing his law enforcement record and saying Trump wanted to worsen conditions at the border to increase his chances of getting elected when he told Republicans to back out of a deal that would have added Border Patrol agents and immigration officers. “Donald Trump doesn’t care about border security, he only cares about himself,” she said on July 30.
The new announcement marks a change in tone for Harris on the border. As a Democratic senator, Harris vigorously led the charge against Trump’s harsh immigration policies. She protested Trump’s Muslim ban on travelers, and when the Trump administration began separating children from their parents at the border, she called for the firing of Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and said the country needs to “think about start from scratch” with its 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 combat corruption in an effort to convince people living there not to migrate north. , for the USA. At a 2021 press conference in Guatemala, she told migrants thinking about making the dangerous journey to the US: “Don’t come.”
In recent months, Harris has been part of a Biden administration effort to take tougher measures at the border to stop illegal migration. In May, Biden took steps to restrict the number of asylum cases that will be heard at the border, a rightward shift by his administration intended to slow the high number of people being brought to the U.S. southern border by smugglers.
This change is already having an impact. Border apprehensions fell from a high of 250,000 in December to 83,000 seized in July.
The campaign’s new ad ends with the phrase: “Fixing the border is hard. Kamala Harris too.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
