Harris promises swing-state voters she’ll be ‘tough’ on border — but criticized Obama in 2019 for deporting illegal immigrants

MESQUITE, Nev. — “Tougher.”

That’s the name of Vice President Kamala Harris’ 30-second campaign spot that’s been running in Arizona and Nevada for almost two weeks now, touting the Democratic candidate’s “tough” record on border issues.

“As a border-state prosecutor, she took on drug cartels and jailed gang members for smuggling weapons and drugs across the border,” the ad proclaims about her time as California’s attorney general.

“As vice president, she backed the toughest border-control bill in decades,” the spot continues, referring to the twice-failed Biden border bill that promised to spend $20 billion on border security without taking any significant border-enforcement measures.

And the ad promises that as president, Harris will “crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking.”

The spot doesn’t mention her nearly three-and-a-half-year role as “border czar” of the administration, likely because under her tenure Customs and Border Protection has recorded more than 10 million illegal-immigrant encounters nationwide, with about 80% at the southern border.

To borrow one of the VP’s favorite turns of phrase, it appears the Harris campaign is “reimagining” the candidate’s record as it pertains to border security.

“Fixing the border is tough. So is Kamala Harris,” the ad concludes.

Ironically, the candidate selling herself as tough on the border sang a different tune in 2019, when she criticized former President Barack Obama’s apparently too-tough approach to illegal immigration.

Back then, during her abortive 2020 presidential-primary run, Harris asserted undocumented persons shouldn’t be touched by law enforcement — underscoring a point of disagreement between herself and the 44th president.

In an interview with Univision’s Jorge Ramos, Harris said Obama’s deportation of more than 3 million illegal aliens was “wrong.”

Throughout her primary bid, the then-senator repeatedly emphasized her position that illegal migrants who have no criminal record beyond their violation of immigration law should be permitted to remain in the country.

“No, absolutely not, they should not be deported. And I actually — this was one of the very few issues with which I disagreed with the administration, with whom I always had a great relationship and a great deal of respect,” Harris told an NBC News debate audience in June 2019.

During the Obama crackdown, Harris used her office as California attorney general to blunt the president’s directives for local law enforcement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“As attorney general, and the chief law officer of the state of California, I issued a directive to the sheriffs of my state that they did not have to comply with detainers, and instead should make decisions based on the best interests of public safety of their community,” she said.

Immigration remains a top-tier issue for voters, particularly in swing states. The Wall Street Journal reported in April that at least 72% of voters surveyed in key battleground states, including Arizona and Nevada, said America’s border security and immigration policies “were headed in the wrong direction.” 

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley the administration’s actions Monday, saying they’re responsible for the entry of more than 10 million illegal immigrants into the country during its tenure.

“Liberal Kamala Harris’ wide-open border policies allowed more than 100,000 illegal immigrants to cross our southern border in July,” he said. “Americans are desperate for a president that will stop the border bloodbath triggered by Kamala’s radical policies, which is why they strongly support President Trump’s promise to seal the border [and] start the largest deportation process in history on day one.”