Vice President Kamala Harris provided a lengthy response regarding her approach to illegal immigration during a Thursday night forum hosted by Oprah Winfrey.
Illegal immigration has emerged as a significant topic in the 2024 campaign, particularly after several violent incidents involving undocumented immigrants and the challenges faced by Springfield, Ohio, due to an influx of over 20,000 Haitian migrants. Harris began by referencing her experience as California’s attorney general and a prosecutor before addressing a failed bipartisan border security bill.
“This is not a theoretical issue for me, this is something I have actually worked on,” Harris said in response to a question from Justin, a black man asking about border security. “I have prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs and human beings. I take very seriously the importance of having a secure border and ensuring the safety of the American people.”
The Senate recently failed to advance a motion to debate legislation that combined foreign aid with border security, negotiated by Senators James Lankford, Chris Murphy, and Kyrsten Sinema, with a vote of 50-49 on February 7.
“Sadly, where we are now, can be traced most recently back to the fact that when the United States Congress, members of Congress, including some of the most conservative Republicans, came up with a border security bill, and here’s what that border security bill would have done: It would have put 1,500 more border agents at the border,” Harris claimed. “Let me tell you, those border agents are working around the clock. It would have been just about giving them some support and relief, which is probably why the border agents actually endorsed the bill.”
Really remarkable and telling moment. Harris is asked a question, and for 3 full minutes she just regurgitates a canned response on the topic, one that she's given at every press availability since the debate. Finally, Oprah jumps in and saves her (and us) from the vapid display… pic.twitter.com/0Sj47ZpbV7
— Ronald Jolly 🇺🇲 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@ProudExDemocrat) September 20, 2024
“It would have allowed us to stem the flow of fentanyl, and I’m looking at people from all over the country here, so I don’t need to tell folks who are watching this what fentanyl has done to families, to kids, in the country and the need to take seriously stemming the flow coming into our country and addressing that extraordinary and tragic issue in terms of its effect,” she continued, adding that the bill would have been “part of the solution” to the border crisis.
House Republicans declared the bill unviable shortly after its introduction, claiming some provisions could exacerbate illegal immigration. Harris attributed the bill’s failure to former President Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump called up those folks and said ‘Don’t put that bill on the floor for a vote.’ He blocked the bill, and you know why? Because he’d prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem, and he has put his political, personal political security over border security,” she said, garnering applause from the audience. “Cause understand, even in the intervening months, what that bill would have done to give support to folks who care about this issue. And this again gets to the point about what does leadership really look like and is it about you or is it about the people? Is it about running on problems, or fixing problems?”
“My work and my career has always been about saying, let’s fix problems, let’s address the needs, because we know it’s within our capacity to do that,” Harris added.
Even on Oprah, Kamala Harris still can't answer what she will do to fix the broken border 😂 pic.twitter.com/Ub1MDPeDFk
— We The Memes (@MericanMemes) September 20, 2024
When Winfrey asked about the possibility of reintroducing the bill, Harris stated, “Absolutely, and when I am elected President of the United States, I will make sure that bill gets to my desk and I will sign it into law.”
