The long overdue "visit" to the border by Vice President Kamala Harris was strictly for show. She checked a box. She only went, frankly, because President Donald Trump announced that he was going to the border with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. 

The border trip was merely a photo opportunity for VP Harris. 

Many Americans, including leftie politicians, urged Harris to head to the border to show that she is serious about the issue. Democrats know that the border crisis will harm them at the next election. 

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My fellow Republicans and I have accurately pointed out that the border is open. We are watching drug and human smuggling dramatically increase due to the open-border policy of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

By not going to the Rio Grande Valley, where there are more than 3,000 people a day surrendering to Border Patrol agents, Harris demonstrates clearly that her photo op in El Paso was simply to check the box. She believes her hour and a half long visit will quiet the criticism of her failure to journey to the border.

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And, even at that, if former President Trump had not announced his own border trip, Harris would never have gone to the border. She was named border czar more than three months ago but couldn’t be bothered to show up at the scene of her administration’s policy crime.

It was amazing to see how quickly after the Trump announcement that Harris declared she would also head to the border.

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But she is decidedly incurious about a very serious problem.

Since Joe Biden dismantled the policies that had brought the border under operational control, approximately one million people have entered or attempted to cross our southern border.

Drugs have poured across the border. Even with record seizures, I am told that we are stopping less than 10% to 15% of the drugs. 

And that means there is more availability of highly addictive and toxic drugs. That means, and the data seems to show, that deaths by opioid overdoses are increasing to record levels.

How many people have died due to this scourge since Biden and Harris decided not to enforce our laws and secure our border?

By avoiding unpleasant things, our VP hopes not to face the very real consequences for her administration’s border policy failure.

The VP did not even go to the children’s facility at Fort Bliss, just minutes from where she landed on her private plane, Air Force 2.

This is because the photo op would turn sour if the press and public could see the "kids in cages" resulting from her policies. 

By avoiding unpleasant things, our VP hopes not to face the very real consequences for her administration’s border policy failure.

She would have learned more by heading to the Rio Grande Valley to see the flood of people who dangerously cross the river every day and follow signs erected by our government to the "Welcome Centers" for a brief detention before being released into the interior of the country.

She would have been educated by visiting the Yuma area and watching the steady flow of people who have flown to Cancun or Mexico City from Russia, Romania, Brazil or other countries. They then fly to Mexicali and take a taxi or Uber to the Yuma area to surrender to CBP agents. They also will soon be released into the U.S.

Agents in the Tucson sector could show her the 60-plus miles with no fencing that allows drugs to stream into the U.S.

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And, anywhere along the border she could talk to residents, business owners, political leaders, law enforcement and ranchers. Each could tell VP Harris how her open-border policy is negatively impacting their lives, families, businesses and communities.

But, our vice president was merely trying to check a box and get her picture taken.

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