Photo: Kamala Harris. Editorial credit: Isaac Hoops / Shutterstock.com

By America’s Voice

Washington, DC — Attacks against the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris include the false assertion she was in charge of border policy in recent years. This message is flat-out wrong (as multiple fact checks such as this good article from Isabela Dias in Mother Jones make clear).

Yet in addition to fact checking, it’s also important to recognize the broader importance of why her actual role focused on the root causes of migration. Reducing the pressures that force people to migrate from their home countries, particularly in nearby Latin American countries, is an important component in addressing the unprecedented hemispheric migration that needs to be part of a smart strategy of reform for 21st century America. The reasons that opponents of immigration consistently oppose efforts to make immigration a more orderly, safe, and legal process are also revealing.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice, reacting:

“If Republican Members of Congress would actually be interested in solutions, they would come to the table with common-sense ideas on how to best manage migration in a way that serves our national and economic interests. Instead, they spend their time fearmongering about immigrants, blocking legislative reforms and fixes and opposing and dismantling approaches that actually help encourage orderly and safe migration.

If you prefer to have immigration as a campaign issue and the border in perpetual crisis, then working together to solve problems and fix our immigration system is the last thing you want and explains why some Members of Congress have blocked any progress on this issue. They prefer non-binding politically driven resolutions to play ‘gotcha’ than working on and supporting legislation to make progress on behalf of the American people. For political reasons, they prefer the chaos of the broken status quo.”

  attacks, elections, Kamala Harris, right wing