[Kamala] Harris seemed to play into this strategy with her now infamous 2021 remarks telling Guatemalans: “Do not come ... If you come to our border, you will be turned back.” Although it may have been more a statement of fact than a threat, it revealed a serious lack of understanding about the forces leading migrants to leave their homes. It also hurt her — and the administration’s — credibility with immigrant communities; a “big blemish,” as a political scientist at UC Irvine told The Times. Her latest talking points — emphasizing drug cartel prosecutions and the border crackdown bill Republicans tanked earlier this year — lean in the same anti-immigrant-tinged direction.

For the full story, please visit https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-08-11/california-kamala-harris-border-immigration-prop-187.