Humberto Hernández : Harris Is Gaslighting on the Border Crisis

Despite Kamala Harris’ repeated assurances, it has long been evident to any objective person that there is a severe humanitarian and national security crisis along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. Nowhere is this more evident than in my hometown of Eagle Pass,TX, which has become ground zero for this crisis — a crisis that I believe Harris has deliberately manufactured. Of the millions of migrants illegally entering the U.S. over the past 3.5 years, countless thousands from every corner of the globe have often overrun this once sleepy, predominantly Hispanic border town. Its two international bridges are now famous for being among the many listed as pick-up locations on the DHS CBP1 application where these unknown persons are processed before disappearing into countless communities across the country.

I know these bridges well although when I was growing up as a first-generation American in the 1980s, Eagle Pass had only one bridge. Crossing into Mexico was simple in those days. Back then, the Mexican side boasted the best restaurants, dentists and bars, while Texas offered better shopping and cheaper gas. Sadly, this is no longer the case on the Mexican side. Even if it were, few of us are willing to risk long waits or cartel violence for a nice meal across the border.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the large number of Mexican nationals who legally cross the border to shop, dine, and visit friends or family who are fortunate enough to live on the U.S. side. I can see this in the long lines of Mexican customers at box stores, supermarkets, and gas stations. These legal visitors, mostly our relatives or friends, come across with proper identification and then go home, as they’ve always done.

Unfortunately, they are now joined by hundreds, sometimes thousands, of migrants who wade across the river without any documents or intention of returning home, having discarded their IDs long before crossing.

For decades, there have been illegal border crossings of individuals and small groups. I’ve seen it myself many times. But the scale has increased dramatically since Kamala Harris took office, spurred by her policies that incentivize illegal entry. Harris has done this far more aggressively than previous administrations while U.S. consulates abroad deny 90% of tourist visas for being “intending immigrants.” Many of the rejected join those who don’t even bother to apply in seeking out the very same traffickers the U.S. claims to be combating. Tragically, many of the trafficked do not survive the journey and many thousands more are abused along the way while incentivized by the very politicians and bureaucrats who claim they are the only ones who care about women’s rights. These are the same people, mind you, that turned Afghanistan over to the Taliban.

Many of these trafficked persons, per DHS statistics, were accompanied by thousands of criminals and terror suspects. Harris welcomes those deemed ineligible for visas by providing them with stipends, free housing, transportation, and healthcare at the expense of underprivileged citizens, veterans and legal residents who have paid into the system but are still homeless.

During the pandemic, illegals were allowed into the country then into communities without submitting to COVID testing, vaccinations, or any of the same controls that everyone else endured. If we are going to allow them into the country anyway, we should charge them a fee, issue them their visas, submit them to the same requirements as everybody else and they thereby avoid the clutches of traffickers.

If you are legally in the US, you have to provide an identification document with security features in order to board an airplane. If you are an illegal, however, identification is optional to board the same flight.

For many years, I served overseas and carried a U.S. diplomatic passport and for all those years, the U.S. was the only country that ever subjected me to secondary inspections every time I entered. Yet, if I were to wade across the river under my hometown bridges (ID optional), Harris would happily welcome me along with millions of others and give me free everything.

No other country in the world has ever allowed an invasion on the scale Harris has. She must believe it will influence future elections and tilt the U.S. towards a one-party country. If this invasion generated the economic prosperity she thinks it does, then Mexico would stop them and leverage the cheap labor there instead of facilitating their crossing into the U.S.

We should at a minimum charge them visa or asylum application fees that offset the government’s expenses so that the newcomers pay “their fair share” like the rest of us do. U.S. consulates happily accept hundreds of dollars per applicant, including those least able to pay, knowing they will deny 90% of those applications.

Harris repeatedly tells us that the U.S. is inherently racist and that we are exploiting these poor migrants. But if the U.S. is so truly racist and misogynistic, then there would not be an illegal immigration crisis because they simply would not come. There is no way millions of people from all over the world would voluntarily risk their lives and sacrifice their children to traffickers for the privilege of being exploited by a country supposedly hostile to them.

The truth is, Kamala Harris is gaslighting us so that she can achieve the highest office without accomplishing anything. Deep down she knows the truth but can’t figure out how to admit that the U.S., warts and all, remains the beacon of hope for the rest of the world. Harris does not know how to win without playing the victim card and we cannot afford another four years of someone who refuses to accept the marvel that truly is the United States of America. And with her defeat, maybe, just maybe, Eagle Pass can go back to being the sleepy little border town it should be.

Humberto Hernández is the CEO of Maverick Strategy LLC and spent 31 years in federal government service, working on U.S. national security, intelligence, and foreign policy.