Video flashback: When Kamala Harris said she would shut down border detention centers

Vice President Kamala Harris has been put in charge of the crisis on the Southern Border according to the President. (As a quick side note, the Associated Press has instructed its writers not to use the word crisis when describing the crisis.) Despite the fact that nobody has seen Harris anywhere near the border thus far, she’s presumably aware of what’s going on down there. Most recently, the administration announced that they are opening up as many as a dozen new facilities for holding migrants in the form of tent cities and large, converted facilities such as convention centers and arenas. While these facilities will allegedly add as many as 15,000 new beds for migrants, the system has already been overwhelmed to the point where they have had to waive the standard FBI background checks for workers assigned to oversee the migrants under their care. (Associated Press)

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The Biden administration is not requiring FBI fingerprint background checks of caregivers at its rapidly expanding network of emergency sites to hold thousands of immigrant teenagers, alarming child welfare experts who say the waiver compromises safety…

These emergency sites don’t have to be licensed by state authorities or provide the same services as permanent HHS facilities. They also cost far more, an estimated $775 per child per day.

And to staff the sites quickly, the Biden administration has waived vetting procedures intended to protect minors from potential harm.

Can we assume that Kamala Harris either approved this decision or was made aware of it? Child welfare advocates are pointing out that the “public record criminal background checks” being performed on the caregivers are ineffective if the applicant has changed their name or provides inaccurate information on their application. In other words, they could be hiring convicted sex crime suspects to care for the migrant children. But I’m sure everything will be fine.

Since Harris is now in charge of these detention centers, what say we take a quick stroll down memory lane and see what then-candidate Kamala Harris had to say about migrant detention centers. Rather than opening up new ones and staffing them up, she told supporters that she would simply shut them all down.

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For another bit of context, keep in mind that many of the people responsible for organizing running all of these border operations are members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection forces and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). So the Vice President will be issuing orders and setting policy for how they deal with this crisis, er… “immigration situation.” But here’s the same Kamala Harris grilling Ronald Vitello during a Senate committee hearing as they considered him for the position of the director of ICE. Interestingly, Harris compares the agency to the Klu Klux Klan.

So we now have someone in charge of new detention centers that she previously promised to shut down and giving orders to border security officials who she is on the record as comparing to Klansmen. As you’ll recall, when Harris was previously asked by a reporter if she planned on visiting the border, she laughed in their face. Maybe Arizona Governor Doug Ducey was right. Could Joe Biden possibly have made a worse choice in terms of who to put in charge of the disaster on the southern border?

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 04, 2024
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