Many years ago, Marty Robbins sang about being in love with a Mexican girl in the West Texas town of El Paso.  The next country song will be more like "clueless in El Paso."

At one point, things got so silly that Representative Veronica Escobar, the one who replaced Beto in the U.S. House, said El Paso was the new Ellis Island.  Did someone tell her that people were actually checked at Ellis Island before they came into the country?

It was a bad day because V.P. Harris, and President Biden, have no idea of the mess that they started.

First, she went to El Paso, 600 miles from where the damage is.  This is like visiting the Canary Islands to talk about the "root causes" in Guatemala.  Let me add that a lot of Democrats in South Texas were hoping for Harris to visit them in McAllen or Brownsville.  Maybe Harris did not want to shake hands with Javier Villalobos, the new GOP mayor of McAllen.

The whole trip was counterproductive, as reported by the New York Post:

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."

Never listen?

Well, I think that a lot of people in South Texas are saying never listen to someone who does not have a clue or who is putting a pretty face on an ugly problem.

Harris got back on the plane and left a lot of people down here wondering what in the world this trip was all about anyway.  For sure, it was not about resolving the problem.  Maybe she had to get back on the jet because she's "Never Been to Spain."

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).

Image: Boston Public Library.

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