Kamala Harris’ border record takes center stage at Ashley Hinson fundraiser

CEDAR RAPIDS — State and national Republicans wasted little time Saturday attacking Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on border security, and downplayed her prosecutorial record and new polling showing she is narrowing the gap with former President Donald Trump.

Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson hosted her annual "BBQ Bash" fundraiser Saturday at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids.

Hinson, a former state lawmaker and former KCRG-TV news anchor, is running for a third term representing Northeast Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. She faces Democrat Sarah Corkery, a breast cancer survivor, disability rights advocate and Cedar Falls small-business owner, in the November election.

  Buy Photo

“Under President Trump we will secure the border. We will deport these dangerous illegals, and we will make America safe again. And that is a promise,” she said to applause.

Hinson and Republican speakers criticized Harris over her inability to manage the U.S.-Mexico border, framing Harris as largely responsible for the Biden administration’s policies on immigration and border security, as they put the issue at the forefront in the race for the White House.

Hinson and others attacked Harris as a failed "border czar“ who did nothing to curb increased rates of migrants illegally crossing the Southern border. In 2021, President Joe Biden tasked Harris with addressing the root causes of migration to the border by people from Central American countries. The Harris campaign has responded to Republicans’ “border czar” moniker by drawing attention to Trump’s own immigration policies and efforts to thwart a bipartisan border deal in the U.S. Senate.

Border crossings reached historic levels under the Biden-Harris administration but, according to the White House, illegal crossings have fallen since Biden issued an executive order restricting asylum applications in certain circumstances after the legislation failed to pass.

Harris, speaking Tuesday at a campaign rally in Atlanta, reiterated her support for a border bill that would increase funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds, Border Patrol agents, asylum officers and immigration judges. It would also reinforce new restrictions on migrants seeking asylum, alongside other reforms.

Trump has made border security one of his signature issues, promising to undertake the "the largest domestic deportation operation in American history" should he win election to a second term this fall.

Hinson said Democrats “have a new nominee, but their woke policies will be the same,” stating Harris has “been in lockstep” with Biden over the last three and half a years to “turn our country into a liberal wasteland.”

  Buy Photo

“There may be a new face to the campaign right now, but we all know that their radical, out-of-touch agenda is the same. Right?” the Marion Republican said. “They're not fooling any of us. We all know what's at stake here."

Harris has won enough votes from Democratic delegates to win the party’s nomination for president, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison announced Friday, after Biden ended his campaign for re-election last month after weeks of pressure from allies over concerns he would be unable to beat Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.

  Buy Photo

Hinson reiterated that Biden should resign from office if he is not up to the task of campaigning. She blamed the media and congressional Democrats for “hiding his decline from the country.”

Hinson also took aim at the Biden-Harris administration’s gender equality rules in education. She praised Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican state lawmakers for banning transgender athletes competing in girls sports at the high school and college levels, cutting taxes and passing a law blocked in federal court that would allow Iowa law enforcement to arrest and charge noncitizens with a crime if they are in the state but have previously been blocked from entering the country or deported. A judge then would be able to order the person to leave the country or face prison.

September is ‘when the game begins’

This year’s headliners included House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan. Jordan is a co-founding member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and a close ally of Trump. The Ohio Republican did not vote to certify Biden's victory in the 2020 election, and as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, led the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. The 15-month effort seeking to tie Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings to corruption on the part of his father failed to turn up evidence that merits impeachment.

Jordan was joined by Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the House majority whip.

Both Jordan and Emmer were contenders last year for House speaker in the scramble to succeed Kevin McCarthy, who was removed from the role in a historic ouster Oct. 3.

Emmer and Jordan praised Hinson as a conservative fighter.

  Buy Photo

Emmer led the crowd of roughly 400 in a chant of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Trump supporters have adopted the new rallying cry in the wake of an assassination attempt of the former president July 13 at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Emmer also told the crowd: “Do not be looking at the polls in August. … When we get to September, that’s when the game begins.”

Speaking to reporters after the fundraiser, Emmer downplayed Harris’ prosecutorial record and backlash over Trump’s contentious appearance last week at the National Association of Black Journalists, where he claimed to be the best president for Black people since Abraham Lincoln and suggested Harris used her race to help her get elected.

Harris has pointed to her time as a district attorney and California Attorney General as a point of contrast against Trump, who was convicted by a New York jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to an adult film actress. He also faces prosecution at the federal level and in Georgia for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Harris has touted her role as an attorney general who prosecuted transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers.

“So don't let her claim the title of, ‘Oh, I really was a good prosecutor working against the drug cartels’ to try to make it sound good. She's for an open border,” Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst said during the fundraiser.

  Buy Photo

Ernst also claimed Harris supports “socialized health care for everyone.”

The Harris campaign has said it has moved away from her interest in a single-payer health insurance system, once a cornerstone of her 2020 presidential run, CNN reported.

“Don’t let (Harris) remake herself,” Ernst said. “She is what she is, and she will be a detriment to our great United States of America.”

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com