BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A pair of online political ads attempting to define U.S. Rep. Susan Wild's stance on the Southern border have Republicans and Democrats crying foul for stretching the truth.
The Lehigh Valley may be 1,900 miles from the Mexican border, but conservative groups have relentlessly attacked Wild and other Democrats this election cycle over border security.
December saw the highest-ever total of estimated illegal border crossings with 249,750, leading critics to condemn the Biden administration for being weak on crime and national security.
While the situation has improved since then — July had 56,408 illegal border crossings, the lowest single month in four years — Republicans have continued to bludgeon Democrats in ads over the border.
The conservative nonprofit American Action Network released one last month attacking Wild, D-Lehigh Valley, on immigration.
After spelling out there's a crisis at the Southern border, the spot featured a video of Wild saying, "I just voted no on the border bill." It urged voters to tell "liberal Rep. Susan Wild" to secure the border and reinstate Remain in Mexico, a controversial Trump administration policy that required asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases were processed.
The ad, however, takes Wild's comment out of context. The bill Wild referred to was HB 2, a Republican-favored one known as the Secure the Border Act. The bill would require the country to build 900 more miles of former President Donald Trump's border wall, continue Trump's Remain in Mexico Policy and limit which migrants can apply for asylum upon entering the United States.
It passed the House without a single Democratic vote and immediately stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The clip comes from a Twitter.com post where Wild explains why she voted against the bill while acknowledging the situation at the Southern border has become unacceptable. She called on her colleagues to rally around a bipartisan bill that would crack down on fentanyl and cartels and provide infrastructure to support border patrol agents while creating pathways for people to legally enter the country.
HB 2, she said, would not provide new resources to border patrol officers.
"It is time for us to stop playing political football with the border situation," Wild said.
It’s time to stop playing political football with the unacceptable situation at the southern border. That’s why I voted against HR 2, because what we need is real, smart, effective solutions to this crisis—not more political games. Watch below to hear about how I think we do it. pic.twitter.com/f6vB21JDOY
— Rep. Susan Wild (@RepSusanWild) May 11, 2023
'Stolen valor'
Another outside group seeking to defend Wild's record may have chosen a poor messenger for its ad.
House Majority Forward, a nonprofit organization supporting Democratic candidates, released a 15-second ad this month praising Wild's effort to find a solution on immigration and the fentanyl crisis.
A speaker with a badge pinned to his vest, identified as Officer Jeff Potts, noted Wild supports HB 3599, a bill that would fund more border patrol agents, better equip those agents, create an E-verify system to for employers checking the immigration status of potential hires and create pathways for some people illegally in the country to remain provided they meet certain conditions.
"Tell Susan Wild to keep leading by passing her new border security bill," Potts said in the ad.
"If Susan Wild was remotely tough on the border, her allies wouldn't need to fabricate law enforcement support."Arnaud Armstrong, a Mackenzie campaign spokesperson
The ad takes some liberties with the facts about the bill. While Wild is a co-sponsor, the bill's author is Rep. Maria Salazar, D-Fla., who introduced it in May 2023. The bill, which has bipartisan support, has remained stuck in committee under the Republican-controlled House.
But in an interview with the New York Post, Le-Hampton Lodge 35 Fraternal Order of Police President Gene Hatcher protested how Potts was depicted. Despite wearing a badge, he is not a police officer but an auxiliary officer, Hatcher said. Auxiliary officers typically assist with crowd control and traffic and lack most of the powers of a full police officer.
Records show Potts previously worked for the Emmaus Police Department, the Post reported; he is not currently listed as an employee on the department's website.
“To me, it’s stolen valor,” Hatcher told the Post. “He’s acting like he’s out there doing drug raids and fighting bad guys, and he has never done that in his life.”
Efforts to reach Hatcher were not immediately successful.
The campaigns weigh in
The ads are intended to shift public opinion in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District — one of the most heavily contested U.S. House races in the country.
State Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh, is challenging Wild this November.
Control of the U.S. House has been narrowly decided the past four years, and the Lehigh Valley is home to one of the country's few swing districts.
"Congresswoman Wild has a proven record of fighting for tough new measures at our Southern border."Natalie Gould, a spokesperson for the Wild campaign
Both parties and their allies have vowed to spend millions of dollars to support their candidate; the 2022 race saw groups spend $24 million in the PA-7 race, a record for the region.
Both of the border control ads came from outside organizations that the campaigns cannot legally coordinate with. But that didn't stop them bolstering their own candidate's immigration records.
"Congresswoman Wild has a proven record of fighting for tough new measures at our Southern border," said Natalie Gould, a spokesperson for the Wild campaign. "While MAGA extremists like Ryan Mackenzie opposed the bipartisan border deal that would have been this country's most comprehensive immigration reform in decades, Congresswoman Wild has voted for more funding for border patrol agents, more resources for inspection detection systems and more counter-fentanyl efforts."
Gould is referring to a $20.2 billion bipartisan agreement negotiated by U.S. senators earlier this year that drew the endorsement of the border patrol agents' union. However, the deal went south from the get-go after Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., blasted it for not doing enough to secure the border.
Trump has since bragged about killing the deal, saying it would award too many emergency powers to the executive branch and provided a key policy win to Democrats.
In an interview this spring, Mackenzie panned the deal, saying it would have allowed too many migrants to illegally enter the country before shutting down the border.
Arnaud Armstrong, a spokesperson for the Mackenzie campaign, demanded Wild apologize for the House Majority Forward ad, saying Potts' appearance amounted to stolen valor.
Mackenzie doesn't need to bolster his record with people impersonating police officers, he said. Mackenzie penned a bipartisan state law that created an E-verify system that allowed construction companies to check the immigration status of potential employees, he said.
"If Susan Wild was remotely tough on the border, her allies wouldn't need to fabricate law enforcement support," Armstrong said.
