Kamala Harris went to the wrong border.
If she really wanted to show up Donald Trump up on the illegal immigration issue, she should have gone to the border with Canada, not Mexico.
The northern border is open too.
That way, in her bait and switch campaign for president, she could have bragged about being the only presidential candidate to have visited both borders as part of her holistic approach in dealing with the issue.
Holistic, a new favorite Harris word, means dealing with the whole of a problem and not just its parts.
It was the way Harris was supposed to deal with the root causes of illegal immigration. How did that work out?
A Canadian border visit would at least have shown some originality and creativity as illegal encounters along the border have skyrocketed to some 200,000 a year with Quebec becoming a main corridor into the U.S.
Speaking of creativity, a young undocumented immigrant named Shivan from India has, along with others, started a jitney cab business driving fellow Indian immigrants who have crossed the Canadian border through Plattsburgh to New York and destinations elsewhere.
Shivan told NPR that he and other drivers charge anywhere from $150 to $300 per person for the six-hour drive to New York City. Business is booming as illegal immigrants are crossing into the U.S. from Canada at a record pace.
Harris visited the Arizona border town of Douglas last Friday not because she wanted to, but because she had to. When it comes to border security, she is tanking in the polls and far behind Trump.
Her visit was only the second since 2021 when President Joe Biden tasked her with seeking a solution to the root causes of illegal immigration which earned her the title of “border czar.”
The assignment was a joke, and that is the way Harris took it.
Since then, the country has been flooded with illegal immigrants, many of whom are criminals who have wreaked criminal havoc in communities across the country.
U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) has reported that more than 600,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records — convicted criminals and those facing criminal charges — are roaming the country.
Rather than the American dream, immigration has turned into the American nightmare.
A Harris visit to the Canadian border also might have made it easier for her to walk back her previous support for open borders, just as she is walking back her prior support of other progressive issues, like anti-fracking, defunding the police, abolishing ICE, and federally funded sex change operations for detained immigrants and prison inmates.
Just because President Joe Biden put her in charge of the southern border did not mean that the northern border was excluded.
There is no sign that Harris took the assignment seriously, but only pretended to do so. Although a supporter of open borders, it was Biden’s decision to wave millions of undocumented immigrants into the country, not hers, although she went along with it.
Now she is stuck with it, and it is hurting her campaign. Her decision to pose for a photo op at the border backfired, giving Trump even more reason to attack her on the issue, which he is doing.
Had she gone north instead, she could have joined New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a fellow Democrat, who last week unveiled bipartisan legislation strengthening enforcement of the U.S. Canadian border, which is the world’s longest international border.
Dubbed the Northern Border Security Enhancement and Review Act, the bill is cosponsored by Democrat New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan and Sen. Kevin Kramer, a North Dakota Republican.
Rather than settling for an unconvincing photo op at some fencing at the U.S. border with Mexico — which only reminded people of Trump’s strong border policy — Harris could have shown some initiative by going to the Canadian border in support of Gillibrand.
Had she gone, Harris could have said, as Gillibrand did, “It’s time to give the northern border the attention it deserves and do what needs to be done to keep vulnerable people and our northern community safe.”
It would not have turned the tide but would have least given Harris some credibility.
Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: [email protected]
