Democrat-aligned and progressive activist groups are reassuring their supporters that Kamala Harris’s tough talk on the border is merely a 2024 election ploy to win over critical swing voters. While Harris has vocalized support for the weak Senate border bill—which primarily deals with military funding for Ukraine—pro-open borders left-wing groups insist that if the Democrat wins the White House, she will drop her support for the legislation.
“We all know and trust Harris to make the right decisions when she’s in office. I don’t think this bill will ever come up again, as is,” Kerri Talbot, who serves as the executive director of the Immigration Hub, said in a recent interview. Despite Harris’s campaign trail rhetoric supporting the legislation, Tablot says she is still backing the Democratic Party nominee.
Even while claiming she supports tougher border and immigration policies, Harris has engaged in some counter-signaling during her campaign.
“We have to have immigration policy that understands that we can fight for our Dreamers, provide a pathway to citizenship for those who have earned it,” Harris said during a radio interview.
Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), a key Harris ally, has added further credence to suspicions that the Democrat nominee will revert to her former open borders policies should she win in November. In May, Padilla blasted the Senate immigration bill, claiming it “contains some of the same tried and failed policies that would actually make the situation worse at the southern border.”
Despite his opposition to the legislation, Padilla insists Harris “is the only candidate in this race who also values keeping families together and providing a pathway to citizenship for long-term residents. And I’m proud to support her.”