By Neil Munro
Sixty percent of Americans say Vice President Kamala Harris “hasn’t clearly explained her policies” on illegal immigration, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center.
Just 30 percent of American respondents said President Donald Trump has not clearly explained his plans for illegal immigration, according to the September 30 to October 6 poll of 5,110 respondents.
On the flip side, 38 percent say Harris has clearly explained her immigration policies, and 69 percent say Trump has clearly explained his planned policies.
But Harris has been very clear on other issues. For example, 72 percent of Americans say Harris has clearly explained her abortion policies, while 60 percent also said Trump explained his abortion-related policies.
The public’s recognition that Harris is hiding her immigration policies has two likely causes.
First, the establishment media rarely pressures her for details whenever she diverts questions about immigration back to her misleading description of the pro-migration bill that the Senate’s bipartisan leadership tried to steamroll through the Senate in January. On October 7, for example, Harris dodged the issue during a lengthy interview with CBS News 60 Minutes show:
60 Minutes: But there was an historic flood of undocumented immigrants coming across the border the first three years of your administration. As a matter of fact, arrivals quadrupled from the last year of President Trump. Was it a mistake to loosen the immigration policies as much as you did?
Harris: It’s a longstanding problem. And solutions are at hand. And from day one, literally, we have been offering solutions … The policies that we have been proposing are about fixing a problem, not promoting a problem, okay? … We need Congress to be able to act to actually fix the problem.
The second explanation is that her pro-migration policies are very unpopular among swing voters, and both she and her media allies want to obscure those policies. For example, she repeatedly says she supports the Senate bill which is routinely described by the media as a “tough” border bill. However, the bill loosened asylum law to legalize unlimited migration into Americans’ communities, jobs, and schools.
Also, Harris released her economic plan to much paise from the establuishment media, but her plan assumes a continued inflow of many job-seeking, rent-raising, wage-cutting migrants, as currently arranged by Biden’s pro-migration border security chief.
Harris’ policy of hiding her immigration priorities is aided by her decision to keep a low profile on immigration during President Joe Biden’s tenure. This low profile now ensures the public knows little about Harris’ role in Bien’s disastrous border policy. On September 18, the Ipsos polling firm reported:
There is no consensus among Americans about what Harris’ responsibilities are as Vice President related to immigration:
10% believe she is responsible for addressing the reasons why migrants leave their home countries for the U.S.
17% believe she is responsible for securing the southern border
28% say a mix of both
24% believe she has little to no responsibility
20% don’t know
Many media outlets are eager to help Harris hide her radically pro-migration policies. For example, the establishment founders of Axios.com wrote that Harris and Trump “basically agree on … Stronger borders and tougher immigration laws: Harris and the Biden administration have embraced restrictions on asylum that resemble Trump policies they once opposed.”
In contrast to her vague plans on migration, Harris wants her base and swing-voting women to clearly know her pro-abortion policy. The Pew poll shows that 72 percent of Americans say Harris has clearly explained her abortion policies, and 60 percent also said Trump explained his abortion-related policies.