Playing offense over border security

Co-opting a GOP issue, Democrats across U.S. call for safety improvements.

By Andrea Castillo

WASHINGTON — Democrats are flipping the script on border security, with political ads for races across the country highlighting an issue Republicans have repeatedly used as an attack. In key swing districts that could determine which party controls Congress, Democrats are criticizing a lack of solutions and calling for public safety improvements at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Ken Calvert has had 32 years to secure the border,” Democrat Will Rollins says in an ad that debuted last week, arguing that the incumbent Republican he’s seeking to oust in California’s 41st Congressional District has not gotten the job done.

In the ad, Rollins says that as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office, he put away drug lords, Mexican Mafia members and violent criminals. The video cuts to a Calvert for Congress sign that reads, “Secure the border!”

But that posture is a lie, Rollins says, pointing to Calvert’s vote against a bipartisan security bill that would have added 1,500 more agents on the border.

The same day Rollins’ ad dropped, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) launched an ad for his Senate campaign that opens with Arizona’s Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway driving parallel to the border, the steel barrier with concertina wire looming in the background.

“Every day on the border is a challenge,” Hathaway says. “Both parties created it, and neither has the guts to fix it. But Ruben Gallego has stood side by side with me, the only member of Congress that has come regularly to my border. And he’s fighting for solutions — better technology, more manpower, so people like me can do our jobs.”

A month earlier, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez — a Democrat from Washington state who, in 2022, flipped a seat long held by the GOP — released an ad touting her work to take on the Biden administration and cooperate with Republicans to secure the southern border. It featured two sheriffs from her state, with Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders saying, “Marie is delivering the tools and manpower we need to tackle fentanyl.”

In a caption accompanying the video on Facebook, Perez wrote, “My bipartisan record is clear. I’m working to secure our border, combat fentanyl, and support law enforcement in Southwest Washington. That’s why I’m backed by Republican and Independent county sheriffs, and our rank-and-file peace officers.”

Asked about the trend, Ben Petersen, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, pointed to Rollins and Perez opposing the Republican-led Secure the Border Act of 2023 and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president as examples of their weakness on the issue.

“Their gaslighting is backfiring because voters know Democrats unleashed the worst border crisis in U.S. history,” Petersen said.

Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo said such ads are a relatively new move for Democratic candidates, who have traditionally avoided focusing on immigration as a campaign issue. They reflect candidates trying to meet voters where they’re at on an issue that has dominated the conservative media for many months.

“Is it a fair policy perspective? Who knows?” he said. “A lot is driven by what voters see on the news, what they’re watching on Fox or what Trump is trying to make a top story. You’re seeing Democrats show their response to this, showing they are not going to just ignore the border and this is a priority.”

Beyond congressional races, the Democratic nominee for president is also touting her record on border security. Harris released an ad this month that highlights her record as a California prosecutor and argues that while fixing the border is tough, “so is Kamala Harris.”

“As a border state prosecutor, she took on drug cartels and jailed gang members for smuggling weapons and drugs across the border,” the ad reads. “As vice president, she backed the toughest border control bill in decades. And as president, she will hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking.”

Her Republican opponent, former President Trump, has made blaming Democrats for the “border nightmare” a hallmark of his campaign, casting migrants as drug dealers, terrorists and rapists. “We’ve become a dumping ground for the rest of the world,” Trump said at last month’s Republican National Convention.

Trujillo said the Harris campaign’s release of an ad focused on the border shows the issue has moved beyond Republicans and moderate Democrats in swing seats. Talking about the border through the lens of security is smart, he said, because “no one wants to scapegoat immigrants.”

“There’s still a large segment of the population that remembers 9/11 and doesn’t want to have anyone come in that wants to hurt our country,” he said.

Monthly arrests across the southern border have reached the lowest point since September 2020, according to figures released Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Officials credit the Biden administration’s June executive order temporarily blocking asylum access, as well as stepped-up immigration enforcement by Mexican authorities and other countries in the region.