Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is attempting to cast her as a tough-on-the-border candidate, but a former leader of the Border Patrol is warning the public not to buy it.
The Harris campaign has released a slate of advertisements that claim the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate would “fix the border” and crack down on illegal immigration by increasing the number of Border Patrol agents. However, retired Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, who led the agency while Harris served as “border czar,” says voters must look at her record to understand how she would really handle border security. (RELATED: Greg Abbott Demands Biden-Harris Admin Pay Back Cost Of Illegal Migrant Medical Care In New Executive Order)
“Look at the track record and dive into the details,” Scott said to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s smoke and mirrors.”
“Just like the Senate bill, she supports more funding and more agents, but it’s to expedite the processing and flow of more illegal aliens into the United States quicker,” Scott said, referring to the now-dead Senate border deal that was quashed in the House earlier this year. “It’s not border security.”
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 23: Rodney Scott, retired Chief, U.S. Border Patrol testifies before the House Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement on Capitol Hill May 23, 2023 in Washington, DC. The committee heard testimony on the topic of “The Biden Border Crisis: Part III.” (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
In a campaign ad released in July, the Harris campaign claimed the vice president supports increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, supports new technology to block drugs from entering the U.S. and even faulted former President Donald Trump for not supporting the Senate border deal. The vice president doubled down on this approach with a new ad this week that casts her as a tough border-state prosecutor and reiterated her pledge to hire “thousands more” border agents.
The new campaign drive appears at odds with her history as a U.S. senator and as vice president.
When running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, Harris was among the majority of contestants who raised their hands when asked if they supported the decriminalization of illegal border crossings. As a senator, she once attempted to compare Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the Ku Klux Klan and joined a list of Senate Democrats in formally opposing then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to increase the number of Border Patrol agents on the ground.
NumbersUSA, a group that supports more hawkish immigration policy, awarded her Senate career an F- rating for her support of a number of bills that, the organization argues, would’ve weakened border security and incentivized further illegal immigration.
Scott served as Border Patrol chief from roughly the last year of the Trump administration to the first seven months of the Biden-Harris administration, which overlapped with Harris’ assignment to address the root causes of illegal immigration from Central America. The retired chief confirmed to the DCNF that Harris never once spoke to him, even after her special designation as “border czar.”
“‘I support more funding for more agents,’” Scott said, mocking the new Harris ads. “Well what are you going to do with them?”
“She supports more funding to speed up the processing, not to patrol the border and enhance the technology on the border,” he explained. “When you dive in and look at her platform and everything she’s said, it’s very, very consistent.”
Kirstjen M. Nielsen (C), Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, tours the border area with San Diego Section Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott (L) at Borderfield State Park along the United States-Mexico Border fence in San Ysidro, California on November 20, 2018. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker / AFP) (Photo credit should read SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP via Getty Images)
The retired chief noted that the Biden-Harris administration “redirected millions and millions” from enforcement operations within Border Patrol and other Customs and Border Protection (CBP) resources in order to process more illegal migrants into the country. He also blamed the administration for redirecting vast taxpayer resources to NGOs so they could fly illegal migrants to “wherever they want to go” instead of prioritizing enforcement.
“Border Security is preventing people from coming into our house without coming through that front door, which is a port of entry,” Scott stated. “It’s enforcing the law, not finding ways to work around it.”
Harris’ recent push to be seen as more of a border hawk also comes after she tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, a Democrat who has a history of left-leaning actions on illegal immigration.
As governor, Walz signed into law legislation that allowed illegal migrants to obtain driver’s licenses and signed bills providing undocumented migrants with state-funded healthcare and free college tuition. During his gubernatorial candidacy in 2018, he publicly declared his support for making Minnesota a sanctuary state, which would largely prohibit local and state law enforcement officials from working with ICE agents to apprehend criminal aliens.
Walz has also opposed border security measures. As a congressman, he once called Trump’s border wall “ridiculous” and more recently quipped that he would invest in a ladder factory in regard to a border wall.
If recent polling is accurate, the Harris campaign will have hurdles in recasting her border security image. A Hard-Harris survey released late last month revealed that 69% of voters believe the vice president to be in favor of “open borders,” including a clear majority of Democratic voters.
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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