HILDAGO, Tx. – Kansas 3rd District Democrat Congresswoman Sharice Davids broke a long silence on the issue of the U.S. southern border crisis last week, coincidentally around the same time her Republican opponent Amanda Adkins traveled to the border to see it for herself.
While Joe Biden’s presidential rhetoric has attacked so-called “MAGA Republicans” who support the completion of the border wall pursued by former President Trump, staunch Biden-supporting congress members like Davids – her voting record to date follow’s Biden’s agenda 100 percent of the time – have largely ignored comment on increasing interdictions of illegal aliens, known terrorists and drug seizures which drastically increased when Biden became president.
Just after Adkins made her border trip in late August, Davids suddenly seemed to find new inspiration as a border security proponent.
“In our state and around the country, the fentanyl crisis has become a public health emergency,” Davids said in an email newsletter. “We need to take action – which is why I’ve voted to hire new border patrol agents and crack down on illegal drug smuggling. I’m pushing for a safe, bi-partian, comprehensive and humane solution to fix our immigration challenges once and for all.”
Emails to Davids’ office for comment for this story received only automated responses.
Adkins said seeing the border situation in person added a perspective to the national story unavailable without a feet-on-the ground approach. She squarely pointed out Davids’ failure in rubber stamping Biden’s negligence on the issue of border security, even as incursion statistics, apprehensions and “got-aways” skyrocketed on their watch.
“Failure to have strong border security coupled with failure to create a path for more people to legally come and work in this country results in our current humanitarian crisis,” Adkins said. “The stories of human trafficking, rape, and other crimes are heartbreaking. Biden and Davids have been a disaster on this issue.”
A record 235,478 illegal immigrants crossed the southern border in April of this year. The month of May broke that record with 239,416 encounters. Since President Biden assumed office, illegal immigration has reached staggering highs. In FY 2021, law enforcement encountered 1.7 million migrants. In the first 8 months of FY 2022, over 1.5 million migrants were apprehended.
This year is expected to be the deadliest year ever for migrants crossing the border and set a new record for illegal fentanyl shipment seizures. Human smuggling and drug trafficking into the United States has become a multi billion-dollar business, with a record number of terrorist sightings at the border just in the first half of 2022.
“Open borders are not safe for immigrants or Americans,” Adkins said.
Drug overdoses have become the leading cause of death for 18-45 year olds. Kansas experienced a 54% increase in drug overdoses last year, primarily fueled by fentanyl.
In May, Amanda Adkins released her plan to secure the Southern border, calling for building a border wall in targeted areas and empowering border agents to combat crime and illegal entries with increased investments in surveillance technology. The full plan can be read at amandaadkins.com/defending-security-advancing-workforce/.
In contrast Sharice Davids has criticized funding a border wall, called for the abolishment of ICE and voted against Title 42 expulsions of illegals from countries with identified communicable diseases before walking back her comments this election year. Davids also voted against prohibiting gang members from receiving federal benefits, stated that declaring an emergency at the southern border is “dangerous to our democracy,” and “… we have to get away from thinking of everyone who’s coming to the United States as being a threat.” In 2018, Davids promised to “finally fix” our immigration system before the border crisis rapidly deteriorated under Biden.
Davids was most recently embroiled in the quick liquidation of a number of her investments in private green energy companies that lobby congress for tax subsidies after those stocks were revealed by an online publication.
Adkins’ trip focused on a region within Texas’ 34th Congressional District, a seat held by Republican Maya Flores, who flipped the seat Republican in a special election in June. That race cut the Democrat majority in the U.S. House from five seats to four.