by James D. Agresti
In an article titled “Harris Flip-Flops on Building the Border Wall,” Axios is reporting that Kamala Harris is suddenly pledging to “spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the wall along the southern border.”
That claim is demonstrably false and is based on a misrepresentation of the Senate Border Act of 2024, which has been repeatedly misportrayed as a “tough” border bill.
Axios’ article, written by Alex Thompson and Hans Nichols, claims that Harris promised to build a wall because she announced at the “Democratic National Convention last week” that she “would sign the recent bipartisan border security bill.” And according to a statement obtained by Axios from Republican Senator James Lankford (OK), the bill “requires the Trump border wall.”
Those claims are highly misleading for two reasons.
First, Harris’ support of the bill isn’t new or noteworthy, as Axios leads its readers to believe. Biden has repeatedly lobbied to pass the bill, Senate Democrats overwhelmingly voted for it, and Harris ran a television ad before the convention bragging that she “backed” the bill.
Second, the actual text of the bill makes funds “available” for a border barrier but doesn’t require it to be built. Pages 76–78 of the bill contain the operative text, which:
- allocates “funds” that “remain available until September 30, 2028” for a “steel bollard pedestrian barrier.”
- leaves the decision as to whether the wall gets built to the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is under the authority of the President.
Those facts are reinforced by pages 76–77 of the bill, which document that the funds for the border barrier were “made available” in laws passed in 2020 and 2021 but weren’t spent.
In short, Axios misconstrues the availability of funds as a requirement to use them.
As explained by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Congress generally appropriates budget authority to an agency for use during a specific period…. However, agencies do not always obligate and outlay these funds in time, which ultimately results in cancelled appropriations.”
The “Tough” Border Bill
Axios’ article adds to the long string of claims that falsely portray the Senate Border Act as tough. This is a frequent talking point of Democrats like:
- Joe Biden, who called it “the toughest border enforcement in history.”
- U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (CT), who called it “the toughest border security bill in decades.”
- Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who said the bill “would have delivered the toughest border measures in decades.”
- U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (NM), who called it “the toughest border security legislation in history.”
- Kamala Harris, who called it “the toughest border control bill in decades.”
In reality, the bill’s 370 pages of legalese are laced with loopholes that codify Biden’s open border policies. Chris Murphy, the Democrat architect of the bill, spelled out these provisions in a moment of candor while selling the bill to his followers:
- “The border never closes.”
- Asylum claims are “processed in a non-detained, non-adversarial way.”
- “Most asylum seekers can work immediately.”
- There is a “slightly higher asylum screening standard at the border.”
- “All immigrants” receive a “brand new right to legal representation.”
- Shutdown authority “can only be used for a limited number of days per year” and “sunsets in 3 years.”
- “Emergency cases that show up in between the ports still need to be accepted.”
- “The ports must process a minimum of 1400 claims a day.”
- There is a “new pathway to citizenship for Afghan parolees (the Afghan Adjustment Act) and the children of H1B holders.”
In vivid contrast, House Republicans passed a bill that would build the wall and close loopholes used by Biden that allow and entice illegal immigration. However, 100% of House Democrats voted against it, and Senate Democrats shelved it. In the words of the Congressional Budget Office, the Republican bill would:
- “require DHS to construct at least 900 miles of wall and physical barriers.”
- “require the federal government to detain arriving aliens or return them.”
- ban “handing out work permits for simply crossing at a port of entry.”
- “limit both the rules of eligibility” to “apply for asylum” and the “circumstances under which asylum could be granted.”
- “create a new criminal penalty for overstaying a visa.”
- “require all U.S. employers to use E-Verify, the federal web-based system for confirming eligibility to work.”
- “significantly restrict” the President’s “ability to grant parole.”
A Gallup survey conducted in June found that 77% of U.S. adults consider “the situation at the U.S. border with Mexico” to be a “crisis” or “major problem.” By portraying Harris and Democrats as tough on the border, Axios and other media outlets like ABC are misinforming voters about an issue with deadly implications.
Why Does Trump Oppose the Senate Bill?
Another canard in the same Axios article is the claim that Trump “ordered his allies to kill” the Senate Border Act, “fearing it would help Democrats in the November elections.”
That common allegation is derived from a post that Trump made on Truth Social in which he stated, “This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party.”
Contradicting the Democrat and media spin that Trump opposes the bill because he doesn’t want the border crisis fixed before the election, Trump wrote in the very same post that the bill must be defeated because it:
- “only gives Shutdown Authority after 5000 Encounters a day, when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done.”
- “takes the HORRIBLE JOB the Democrats have done on Immigration and the Border, absolves them, and puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans.”
In summary, the claim that Kamala Harris promised to build a border wall has no basis in reality and bolsters counterfactual propaganda that Democrats are strong on border security. Meanwhile, Democrats universally opposed a strong border bill, and objective measures show that the border has been far less secure under Biden and Harris than ever recorded in the nation’s history.
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James D. Agresti is the president of Just Facts, a think tank dedicated to publishing rigorously documented facts about public policy issues.
Photo “Kamala Harris” by Kamala Harris.
