House Democrats blocked a GOP-backed bill on Monday night that would have stopped President Joe Biden’s border crisis head Vice President Kamala Harris from taxpayer-funded international trips until she visits the U.S.-Mexico border and submits a report on the crisis to Congress.
In a 217-203 vote, House Democrats narrowly stopped the legislation, effectively preventing the legislative chamber from requiring that Harris visit any of the border counties that are trying to handle the skyrocketing number of people illegally entering the United States. Harris was tapped by the Democrat administration to lead the White House response to the border crisis more than two months ago.
Rep. Ashley Hinson, a freshman congresswoman from Iowa, first introduced the See the Crisis Act in May in an effort to prevent American taxpayer dollars from funding the vice president’s international frolicking while ignoring the U.S. border crisis.
During her presentation of the bill on Monday night, Hinson criticized Harris for “failing the American people,” “failing law enforcement at the border,” and “failing the families who will suffer because of drugs coming across our border and falling into the wrong hands.”
“Vice President Harris was named as administration’s point person on the illegal immigration crisis at our southern border 80 days ago. And this crisis is worsening by the day. Yet, the vice president has refused to go to the border herself and talk to the brave law enforcement officers, the men, and women who are fighting this on the frontlines,” Hinson said on the House floor on Monday night. “…And this sends a clear message to the cartels that the U.S. government doesn’t think it a priority to stop them.”
Last week, Harris defended her refusal to visit the U.S.-Mexico border, where an illegal crossing crisis rages on, by comparing it to her lack of presence in other foreign countries in Europe.
“You haven’t been to the border,” interviewer Lester Holt noted.
“I haven’t been to Europe,” Harris said, shrugging off the implications of the question. “And I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”
She also used her visit to Guatemala, one of the Northern Triangle countries, as an excuse to claim that it would give her insight into the “root causes” of the influx of illegal border crossings. During her time on the trip, however, she ignored Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei’s pleas for the U.S. administration to do something about the rise in illegal aliens, instead blaming border problems on climate change and the economy.
According to the newest monthly data, U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 180,000 people at the southern border in May 2021 alone. That is 14,000 more captures than the last record number of May border crossings in 2000.
In addition to a rise in single individuals crossing the border, not families, Border Patrol agents also saw a significant increase in drug trafficking. In May alone, officials seized at least 18 percent more drugs than they did in April, with seizures of methamphetamine increasing by 53 percent, heroin by 7 percent, and fentanyl by 9 percent.
