Kamala Harris to Travel to Mexico and Guatemala, Not Southern Border
The border is experiencing a crisis the likes of which it hasn’t seen in a long time.
The Washington Post reported on April 2 that U.S. agents took 171,000 migrants into custody in March alone — the highest total in 15 years. Furthermore, per preliminary data from Customs and Border Protection reported by The Post, there were “more than 18,800 unaccompanied minors, a 99 percent increase from February and a figure far above the previous one-month high of 11,861 in May 2019.”
“The jump in the number of migrants arriving as part of family groups was even steeper last month, soaring to more than 53,000, up from 19,246 in February and 7,294 in January,” The Post reported.
And none of this is even getting into the absolutely deplorable conditions at many of the border’s holding facilities. Despite the obvious evidence of chaos, President Joe Biden claims that “the truth of the matter is nothing has changed.”
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris is planning a trip to Mexico and Guatemala — among the culprits of the border crisis — without taking a trip to the border itself.
Harris spoke about the upcoming trip at a Northern Triangle security roundtable on Wednesday, according to Fox News.
“The president has asked [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas to address what is going on the border and he has been working very hard on that and is showing some progress because of his hard work,” she said.
“I have been asked to lead the issue of dealing with root causes in the Northern Triangle, similar to what the then-vice president did many years ago. But I will tell you these are issues that aren’t going to be addressed overnight.”
Despite criticism regarding Harris’ absence at the border, the Biden administration is remaining firm in its messaging.
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“This is diplomatic work that ultimately, over the long term, will address the migration issues we’re seeing. It’s not an assignment to ‘handle the border,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told MSNBC. “What [Harris is] doing is high-level diplomatic work that is incredibly important to our economic stability in the hemisphere.”
In addition, Bedingfield doubled down on Biden’s ignorance of the crisis, calling the border a “cyclical” issue in a March interview with ABC’s “This Week” co-host Jonathan Karl.
All in all, it is almost unbelievable that the Biden administration has been so careless in its border policy. Most of the migrants coming over the border are not evil people. Many are honest people simply searching for the opportunity for a better life. This dereliction of duty has forced state governments to take the lead.
While it ought to be recognized that illegal immigrants are violating the law, migrants do not deserve to be penned like animals. Beyond the moral level, considering the fact that we are still in a pandemic, don’t you think Biden would want to be more cautious?
It’s not only bad policy; it’s bad politics. American voters care about the border, and it’s no surprise that many citizens living in border regions voted for Donald Trump in droves during the 2020 election.
If Biden were to get a handle on the border, he would prove his conservative critics wrong and resolidify voting demographics that are not as safe for Democrats as they were in elections past. 2022 is coming, and it might not be pretty for Democrats if things don’t change.
The bottom line, though, is that for the good of the country, Kamala Harris needs to visit the southern border. She needs to see the suffering there for herself, and it is her responsibility to influence the president to take action.
Diplomatic trips to Mexico and Guatemala are not going to solve the root of the problem if she does not understand what the problem is in the first place.
This is much more than a Republican jab. It is a plea to value the well-being of people living on both sides of the border.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
