Harris was put in charge of addressing issues in originating countries to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. Record number of illegal border crossings followed.
With immigration and border security among the top issues concerning voters, Vice President Kamala Harris’ role in the Biden administration’s border and immigration policy is now under scrutiny.
Regardless of the argument between media and conservative activists over whether Harris was “border czar” or not, the Vice President was assigned responsibility with at least portions of the Biden administration’s border and immigration policy. Several media outlets are now backtracking on their own reporting by seemingly parroting talking points distributed to Democratic elected officials, despite their own reporting on Harris’ appointment to handle various immigration policies.
The Vice President was tasked with working with Mexico and a series of Central American nations from which a surge of illegal immigrants entering the United States illegally erupted. While Axios characterizes the dispute over her role as “confusion”, Harris’ proximity and involvement in the administration’s response to the border crisis is likely to be a drag on her campaign.
While the Vice President was put in charge of identifying and preventing the “root cause” of the flood of illegal immigration from a handful of nations in 2021, it wasn’t until recently that the Biden administration, facing abysmal approval ratings on border security compared to former President Donald Trump, began cracking down on asylum seekers. In the time in between, record numbers of illegal immigrants entered the United States.
The Border Patrol union criticized Harris’ efforts, saying not only has the situation not improved, but “it has only gotten worse.” In June of 2021, when the Vice President finally visited the border town of El Paso, Border Patrol agents allege they were instructed to move illegal immigrants “out of holding facilities to put on a ‘show’ for Harris.”
Harris’ remarks on other immigration-related issues raise alarm bells for conservatives and border security hawks. During a 2020-cycle presidential debate, then-Senator Harris raised her hand in agreement that illegal immigrants should be given health care coverage.
In 2018, before she began her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris compared the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to the Ku Klux Klan in a Senate committee hearing and told NBC News that ICE should be abolished, and the government should “probably think about starting from scratch.”
Additionally, in 2019 Harris told the “Pod Save America” podcast it “is not a crime” to be an illegal immigrant in the country, though Harris used the phrase “undocumented immigrant.”
In the leadup to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, yet another immigration-related headache is waiting for Harris: up to 25,000 additional illegal immigrants are expected to arrive before the convention begins in August.
