Speaking to some 12,000 people at a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night, Vice President Kamala Harris chastised ex-president Donald Trump for blocking a far-right Senate border bill previously negotiated by Senators James Lankford (Republican-Oklahoma), Kyrsten Sinema (Independent-Arizona) and Chris Murphy (Democrat-Connecticut).

“Earlier this year we had a chance to pass the toughest bipartisan border security bill in decades,” Harris said. “But Donald Trump tanked the bill because he thought it would help him win an election.

“Well, when I am president I will sign that bill into law,” she declared.

The bill Harris pledged to sign into law devotes nearly $20 billion to the border security apparatus, including an infusion of nearly $8 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with over $3 billion of that amount earmarked for the expansion of detention facilities to accommodate up to 50,000 people. The bill also allocates nearly $7 billion for Customs and Border Protection, including $723 million to hire more Border Patrol agents.

While providing no “pathway to citizenship” for the over 2.5 million people brought here as children, known as Dreamers, the bill gives the president new legal authority to shut down ports of entry if an average of 5,000 migrants cross every day for a week, or if the number reaches 8,500 in a single day. Encouraging child separation and trafficking, unaccompanied minors from countries other than Canada and Mexico don’t count towards that total.

The bill was endorsed earlier this year by Trump-aligned border police union head Brandon Judd, the US Chamber of Commerce and the Wall Street Journal. The Journal editorial board dubbed it a “Border Security Bill Worth Passing,” characterizing it as the “most restrictive migrant legislation in decades.”

In her Vegas speech, Harris attacked Trump and the Republicans from the right, saying:

We will address the issue of immigration. We know our immigration system is broken. And we know what it takes to fix it, comprehensive reform that includes, yes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.

Pledging to be a more effective persecutor of immigrants, Harris added, “Donald Trump doesn’t want to fix this problem… he talks a big game about border security, but he does not walk the walk.”

In reality, both Trump’s Republicans and the Democratic Party, along with the ruling elite in every other capitalist country, are promoting nationalism and anti-immigrant chauvinism to divert mass social anger over war and inequality in a right-wing direction, divide the working class and destroy its democratic rights.

In the United States, Trump and his MAGA allies pledge, with the help of the US military, to carry out mass deportations of up to 20 million people. In speeches written by his neo-Nazi adviser Stephen Miller, Trump grunts that an “invasion” of “vermin” is streaming across the border and “poisoning the blood of our country.”

That Harris would attack Trump for talking a “big game” without commenting on the fascist political content of his speech underscores the Democrats’ role as midwife for fascism in America. This, along with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s characterization of the Republican fascists as merely “weird,” is part of the ongoing effort of the Democratic Party to blind the working class to the very real threat of dictatorship.

In line with Harris’ comments Saturday night, the campaign released a new advertisement touting her “law and order” credentials and anti-immigrant bona fides. In the authoritarian 30-second ad, Harris is constantly flanked by police and border patrol agents, as a deep voice narrates:

Kamala Harris has spent decades fighting violent crime. As a border state prosecutor she took on drug cartels and jailed gang members for smuggling weapons and drugs across the border.

As vice president she backed the toughest border control bill in decades. And as president she will hire thousands of more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking.

Fixing the border is tough, so is Kamala Harris.

Following her appearance in Las Vegas, the vice president flew to San Fransisco on Sunday for a high-dollar fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. Tickets to the event ranged in price from $3,300 to $500,000, the San Franciso Standard reported.

Some 200 anti-Gaza genocide protesters demonstrated well outside the venue and well beyond a police cordon. Inside the hotel, attendees “sipped mimosas and nibbled on hors d’oeuvres brought by gray-uniformed servers,” the Standard wrote. Democratic politicians in attendance included San Francisco Mayor London Breed, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and California Representative Barbara Lee.

Speaking to the assembled wealthy and ultra-rich, Harris gave a special shout-out to California Governor Gavin Newsom. Harris thanked Newsom, fresh off leading a sweep of homeless encampments in Los Angeles, for being an “extraordinary Californian and a national leader.”

In her speech, former Speaker Pelosi touted the importance of the “three M’s”—mobilization, message and money. Campaign officials for Harris estimated that Sunday’s event brought in over $12 million for the campaign, on top of over $310 million raised last month.

Sunday’s event was preceded by a Zoom fundraiser hosted by billionaires Ron Conway and Reid Hoffman, which the Standard reported brought in a “six-figure haul for the Harris-Walz campaign.” Conway and Hoffman, through their super PAC Clear Choice, have filed lawsuits to block third party and independent candidates, including Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from appearing on the ballot.

Writing on Harris’s “deep ties to some of Wall Street’s biggest rainmakers,” the Wall Street Journal reported on August 4 that “Wall Street heavyweights in Harris’s corner advising on policy and other areas include Centerview Partners co-founder Blair Effron, Evercore founder Roger Altman and Blackstone President Jonathan Gray.”

In addition to the above, the Journal identified four of “Harris’ go-to advisers and donors on Wall Street.”

• Ray McGuire, president of Lazard. The Journal wrote that the 67-year-old McGuire is “one of the highest-ranking Black executives on Wall Street,” and that he and his wife, Crystal McCrary McGuire, “played a key role in introducing Harris to bigwigs in New York in 2018, ahead of her first presidential campaign.”
  
• Brad Karp, chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. The newspaper reported that in addition to having deep ties to the Obamas and the Clintons, Karp “got to know Harris when she was a California prosecutor,” and will be “spearheading a Lawyers Committee for Kamala Harris that plans to host gatherings... and raise millions in the process.”
  
• Jon Henes, founder and CEO of consulting firm C Street Advisory Group: The Journal reported that Henes “has played a key role in organizing the recent Wall Street fundraising blitz for Harris” and that he “was national finance chair for Harris’s first presidential campaign.”
  
• Marc Lasry, co-founder and CEO of Avenue Capital Group: Lasry is a billionaire and former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team He was the top fundraiser for the 2012 Obama campaign, a major bundler for Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and previously hosted “a number of fundraisers for Harris during her first presidential campaign,” per the Journal.