Kamala urged Senators to reject Trump's call for border funding—now claims she backs 'increase' in agents

Vice President Kamala Harris issued a letter to Senate colleagues in 2018, urging them to reject former President Donald Trump's demands for funding to, among other things, increase the number of Border Patrol agents at the US southern border. On Tuesday, however, the Harris campaign released a new presidential campaign ad claiming that VP Harris "supports increasing the number of Border Patrol agents." 

The Harris campaign said that the vice president "is fighting to fix our broken immigration system." This is despite the fact that Harris was named "Border Czar" by President Biden in 2021, during which time the administration implemented open border policies that resulted in the current catastrophic border crisis under Harris' guidance.

The vice president has a track record of fighting against Donald Trump's border policies, which the US Border Patrol has stated in the past were very effective. The Border Patrol Union endorsed Trump's 2024 campaign and has strongly criticized Biden and Harris's open border policies.

In the 2018 letter to colleagues, Harris urged her fellow lawmakers to "reject President Trump's proposal for funding to hire new Border Patrol personnel at this time."

"The Trump administration has fueled great anxiety and undermined the public safety of communities nationwide with its embrace of indiscriminate immigration enforcement. We cannot support the appropriation of funds that may be used by federal officials to support efforts to arrest, detain, and deport" illegal immigrants, said Harris, who also wanted Senators to reject funding for the border wall and "a large increase in US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel and detention beds."

The Border crisis caused by the Biden administration has emerged as a top concern among voters this presidential election cycle. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has centered his campaign around securing the US southern border and re-enacting the border policies his administration established while in the White House.

More than 7 million illegal immigrants have flooded through the southern border since the Biden/Harris administration took over the White House in 2021. On day one, President Biden signed an executive order overturning Trump's border policies. Vice President Harris has been in charge of the border but rarely made an effort to speak to border executives, let alone visit the border. Border Patrol officials complained in the past about Harris refusing to visit the border when millions of illegal immigrants began to flood through, including foreign terrorists and violent gang criminals.