Politics

CHAD WOLF: Kamala Harris’ Tough Border Talk Conceals Radical Immigration Plan

Vice President Kamala Harris in Houston, Texas, Aug. 1, 2024. (Screen Capture/CSPAN)

Since Kamala Harris unseated President Joe Biden to become the Democratic presidential nominee, her campaign has spent the last few weeks trying to distance herself from the failed policies of the current administration where she holds the title of vice president and was dubbed “Border Czar.”

Despite being part of the administration responsible for an unprecedented 10 million (and counting) encounters of illegal aliens at our borders and at least 2 million “gotaways” who evaded the Border Patrol, our televisions have been bombarded for weeks with ads claiming that a President Harris will be tough on the border.

Now that her party has unveiled its official policy platform, we no longer have to speculate if her stated immigration positions from her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign or her time in the Senate reflect her current views. With the adoption of the party policy platform this week in Chicago, we have a good idea of what a Harris-Walz administration means for border security.

The signature immigration bill that receives multiple references in the Democratic policy platform is the aspirational-sounding, U.S. Citizenship Act. The platform description would have you believe that this bill is just about increasing low-skilled, family based legal immigration. What the platform description does not tell you is that it is the most expansive and radical amnesty for illegal aliens ever introduced. This is not hyperbole or exaggeration. Just a simple fact.

The main feature of the bill is to provide amnesty to over 15 million illegal aliens in the country, many of whom were allowed into American communities during the Biden-Harris administration. The bill includes waivers, which you can expect the Harris administration to exercise, to allow convicted criminals and human traffickers to receive amnesty and be put on a path to citizenship. The legislation completely nullifies the long-standing prohibition of benefits for aliens who consume welfare. And the administration goes to great lengths to oppose bills that strengthen prohibitions on illegal immigrants voting in American elections.

If that isn’t extreme enough, the bill also requires the federal government, at taxpayer expense, to locate previously deported illegal aliens and return them to the U.S. to obtain amnesty. Yes, you read that right. Illegal aliens who have been kicked out of the country for violating our immigration laws, and sometimes even our criminal laws, get to jump the line and receive amnesty while millions of prospective legal immigrants must wait years to obtain a visa.

The Harris-endorsed U.S. Citizenship Act also significantly restricts U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ ability to deport future waves of illegal aliens. This provision is important because history shows that past amnesties, or even talk of amnesty, fuels future waves
of illegal immigration.

The current Biden-Harris nationwide catch and release policy has allowed millions of illegal aliens to be released into American communities; a Harris-Walz administration will go even further and be more efficient in accomplishing this goal. This means that the largest amnesty ever granted will not solve the current border crisis, rather, it will just reward tens of millions of illegal aliens with a path to citizenship, and the ability to vote in U.S. elections, and spur the next wave of illegal aliens who the far Left will claim we must address with yet another amnesty down the line.

This is not a serious policy proposal. It is a dog whistle to the Mexican drug cartels and human traffickers to continue to exploit vulnerable populations.

Speaking of human traffickers, it should not be lost on anyone that the day after the Democratic policy platform was unveiled, the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General published a scathing report about the Biden-Harris Administration’s complicity in the trafficking of unaccompanied alien children. In plain language, the report revealed that nearly 30,000 unaccompanied alien children failed to show up for their court hearings and an astonishing 291,000 vulnerable migrant children are lost because the Biden-Harris Administration stopped issuing official documents, known as a Notice to Appear.

As the New York Times previously detailed when they placed the total around 85,000 lost migrant children, most of them end up in sex trafficking or forced labor scenarios.

So while candidate Harris will pay lip service to “tough” border security measures, the record and her party platform paint a very different and bleak reality. Open border policies fuel human trafficking and enrich the cartels.

In contrast, serious and effective border security measures paired with robust interior enforcement sends a clear signal that unlawful immigration is unacceptable in the U.S.

Kamala Harris misses the mark on the America First border strategy.

Chad Wolf is the former Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and Executive Director and Chair of the Center for Homeland Security and Immigration at the America First Policy Institute.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.