Axos argues that Vice President Kamala Harris supports former President Donald Trump's border wall because she supports a Senate border bill that would require federal employees to spend border wall funds allocated under the Trump administration.
Axios headlines make Despite the article not including any quotes or statements from Harris or her campaign, claims are flying that Harris has “changed her stance on the border wall.”
Her campaign fired back, telling Axios:
Harris' advisers point out that the bipartisan border proposal does not include new funding to continue building the wall.
They say the bill simply extends the deadline for spending the money allocated for the final year of Trump's term, but it includes new restrictions to ensure the money is used for the barrier.
“That's laughably unbelievable,” Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, responded.
“She hasn't said a word about it, but her campaign is trying to do the same thing that Trump did in 2016, which is to use the wall as a byword for a hard-line stance on immigration,” Krikorian said. “It's a way to convince everyone that she's not just lying, but that she's actually using her current position to show progress on some of these issues.”
“What she needs to do is go to the wall and say, 'The administration I served in for four years wrongly opposed the wall. I am calling on President Biden to resume construction of the wall, and I will do this if I am elected,'” Krikorian told Breitbart News.
“The corporate media needs to make it clear that they will not budge from Harris' lifelong commitment to radical policies. [migration] The policy would be accepted in the following form: [an] Anonymous quote.” Tweet A comment from Stephen Miller, Trump's border adviser: “Either Harris will do the interview or she won't.”
The bill extends expiring funding to pay for $650 million in border wall construction, with much of the money likely to go toward Biden's border chief's plans to fill gaps in the wall and to install lights and sensors in the wall, as requested by his staff. The wall is not meant to stop migrants, but to funnel them to safer crossing points.
Harris has been a staunch opponent of President Trump's border wall efforts since at least 2015.
https://t.co/UOFTg430kv pic.twitter.com/hettUNU1uH
— NumbersUSA (@NumbersUSA) August 27, 2024
Harris' current policy platform touts the February border deal, but it masks a host of less recognizable legal changes that will ensure a massive influx of workers, consumers and renters, a legalized influx that will transfer even more wealth from ordinary American families to older Wall Street investors.
Voters, including white-collar, Latino and Black voters, increasingly oppose the economic and social damage caused by illegal and legal immigration. Support for a border wall, for example, has risen to roughly 55 percent.
But Democratic leadership and its base are increasingly committed to a nation-changing immigration policy. “No country or society has ever tried to build a democracy as large and diverse as ours — a democracy that includes people from every part of the world over many decades. The world is watching to see if we can actually follow through,” former President Barack Obama said at the Democratic National Convention.
Many consumer economy investors and donors who benefit from an influx of consumers, renters, and workers share lofty immigration goals.
Because Harris has a pro-immigration record, supporters of pro-immigration groups have been quiet about her apparent promise of a tough crackdown. “Judging by what she's done so far, her policies will likely align with those of Unidos US,” said Carmen Feliciano, advocacy director for Unidos US, a pro-immigration group formerly known as La Raza. Politico.
The Harris campaign is zigzagging its way through political dilemmas.
“The campaign wants to reduce illegal border crossings, but not reduce immigration overall,” Krikorian said. “She's not going to make that point, and her sycophants in the media aren't going to make that point, but it's part of a broader political double-deal: I'm against illegal immigration but I'm for legal immigration.”
“If we let in everyone who wants to enter the country legally, the wall is pointless. toll gate in Blazing Saddles” Krikorian said.
Another retraction by an anonymous aide.
Kamala has called the border wall a “vanity project” because illegal immigration is “by definition not an emergency.”pic.twitter.com/9XK4xaKcNr https://t.co/lSDypNaSrp
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 27, 2024
This two-part strategy was implemented by Border Patrol Commissioner Alejandro Mayorkas, who cited his many “legal tools” as solutions to the chaos at the border. Since 2021, Mayorkas has allowed at least 1 million economic migrants into the country through legally contested parole, amnesty, family reunification and visa worker programs.
Krikorian says the media hasn't picked up on Mayorkas and Harris' two-step because Trump has also said the government should help businesses with foreign workers, consumers and renters. “Her campaign is capitalizing on the fact that Trump is both a legally good and an illegally bad politician, and they're riding that wave,” Krikorian says.
