#Why Kamala’s photo-op trip to the border won’t do much to slow the waves of migrants

A full 94 days after President Joe Biden tasked her with leading the White House response to the illegal-immigrant surge, Vice President Kamala Harris finally visited the southern border. And she brought one of the “root causes” with her: an opened-armed Democrat encouraging more migrants to make the dangerous trek.

Even some Dems criticized Harris for choosing El Paso, Texas, for her first border stop. “The epicenter is down there in the Lower Rio Grande, the lower part of my district,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said. In El Paso, “you’re not going to get a true of picture of what’s happening.”

The Rio Grande Valley, hundreds of miles away, is seeing 230 percent more crossings than El Paso.

Cueller suspects Harris’ team wanted a “politically safer” trip — in a district with a friendlier congressman. And Rep. Veronica Escobar delivered, greeting Harris with: “Welcome to my community, to the new Ellis Island, to the capital of the border.” Uh, Ellis Island processed millions of legal immigrants; Escobar is luring illegal migrants, even after seeing stories of smugglers dropping toddlers off over border fences.

Harris claims “we’ve made progress” on the crisis. Which is true, we suppose, if you consider skyrocketing growth in illegal crossings “progress.” In May, detentions hit a 21-year monthly high of 180,000.

Biden backed his veep’s trip, saying she “set up the criteria” to “know what we need to do.” Yet his firing of Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott on Wednesday is more proof his team is clueless: Scott didn’t cause the surge; Biden’s reversal of his predecessor’s successful policies did — halting border-wall construction, putting a moratorium on deportations and ending the Remain in Mexico policy that saw migrants awaiting their case results outside the country.

“Never listen to anyone who says you can’t do something,” Harris told a group of unaccompanied girls she met with. What bizarre advice to give to those sent alone as lawbreakers. Instead of announcing changes that would have a real effect, Harris’ office released flattering quotations from her meeting with the girls, with one reportedly telling her, “You’re an example to us.”

Alas, Harris clearly doesn’t plan to persuade her boss to reinstate the Trump-era policies, even after her photo-op border trip. Which means the border crisis isn’t likely to stop any time soon.