Kamala Harris has a big problem, and Joe Biden to thank for it. Since the president assigned his vice president to oversee the crisis at the southern border over three months ago, “thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants have already streamed into our nation at levels not seen in two decades,” according to Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas). Yet for three months she dismissed calls to visit the border with unconvincing excuses like “we’ve been to the border,” and “I haven’t been to Europe. I don’t understand the point you’re making.” On Friday Harris finally — after 93 days — visited the southern border for the first time as vice president, in what was “a pit stop, literally, in El Paso, on the way to Los Angeles in order to check a box,” said Roy. There, she had a new spin on her prolonged absence, “I said back in March, I was going to come to the border. So this is not a new plan.”

Meanwhile, the vice president made trips to Guatemala and Mexico, ostensibly to understand the source of the problem. After three months of insisting that visiting the border in person was unimportant, and multiple foreign trips to understand the issue, Harris still lacks a solid grasp of the issues. The first warning sign was that she chose El Paso for her border visit, around 700 miles from McAllen in Texas’ southern tip, where the border crisis is concentrated. For comparison, that’s about the distance between Atlanta, Georgia and Detroit, Michigan. The second warning sign is more troubling; “once she got there, she offered no solutions,” said Roy.

These warning signs don’t lie. Kamala Harris “either doesn’t know or doesn’t care” about fixing the crisis on the southern border, said Roy. He explained, “she’s only talking about those who are seeking economic opportunity in the country. She’s not addressing the criminal aspect, the dangerous elements, that are crossing the border to do harm in America.” In other words, when people are talking about the border crisis, they mean “dangerous elements coming in between the ports of entry,” trafficking drugs and human beings into the country. Since January 1, border patrol agents have made over 700,000 land border encounters (roughly the population of Boston) and seized 7,500 pounds of fentanyl (sufficient to kill more than a billion people).

Most parents instinctively understand this problem conceptually because a port of entry is like a door to a house. When boys and drugs are illicitly entering your daughter’s bedroom window, your top concern is not making the front door large and inviting because it doesn’t address the primary issue. Yet that has been the Biden administration’s approach. They are even posting “literal signs that say ‘asilo’ [Spanish for ‘asylum’] … with an arrow pointing migrants to go claim asylum in processing centers,” said Roy.

“We can fix this problem in a matter of days,” said Roy, “there is hope, but not as long as you’ve got radical Leftists running the White House.” They have abandoned the Trump administration’s successful policies, like Remain in Mexico, infectious disease screening, correctly applying asylum laws, and finishing the border fence. “It’s only about having the willpower to do it,” said Roy.

Roy made it clear that Christian compassion demands a strong border policy. The Democratic obsession with “wide open borders” not only “endangers us,” he said, “it endangers the migrants who seek to come here, the little girls getting abused.” There’s many immigrants seeking a better life in America, but the real border crisis is caused by allowing criminal cartels to roam freely over our border. It must end.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.