Republicans have accused Kamala Harris of reversing her stance after she endorsed a stricter immigration policy, which includes expanding the controversial US southern border wall. This is a stark contrast to her earlier views, when she labeled the wall “un-American” and a “medieval vanity project.”
At last week’s Democratic National Convention, Harris committed to revisiting a bipartisan immigration agreement that collapsed in the Senate earlier this year. The deal, a compromise between the Biden administration and congressional Republicans, would have been one of the toughest measures against illegal immigration in years. However, it fell apart after GOP members withdrew their support, pressured by Donald Trump, who did not want Democrats to gain political advantage from the issue.
By reviving this agreement, Harris is now advocating for hundreds of millions of dollars to be spent on the border wall, a key project of Trump’s presidency, according to Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, one of the deal’s architects.
Lankford told Axios that the legislation includes provisions for constructing the wall based on the standards set during Trump’s administration. Although the bill allocates $650 million for the wall, this is significantly less than the $18 billion Trump had requested in 2018.
Harris’s current stance marks a major shift from her earlier opposition to the wall when she was a senator from California. In 2017, she called it “a stupid waste of money” and vowed to block funding. During her first presidential run in 2019, she described it as a “medieval vanity project,” and in 2020, she wrote that “Trump’s border wall is a complete waste of taxpayer money.”
However, recent campaign ads have portrayed her in a different light, showing images of the wall as she is presented as a “border-state prosecutor.”
This apparent policy reversal is the latest in a series of shifts away from the liberal positions she held during her failed 2020 presidential campaign. Harris has also been criticized for changing her stance on Medicare for all and fracking as she adopts a more centrist approach following her elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket after Joe Biden suspended his re-election bid and endorsed her in July.
