The Associated Press is highlighting Vice President Kamala Harris’ immigration record, noting that she has taken a “long-term” approach to addressing the surge of migrants under President Joe Biden. This statement was made by the AP on August 14.
Harris was never the “border czar,” or put in charge of border security or halting illegal border crossings, as former President Donald Trump, Republicans and even the occasional media outlet have claimed. Instead, she was tasked in March 2021 with tackling the “root causes” of migration from the Northern Triangle and pushing its leaders — along with Mexico’s — to enforce immigration laws, administration officials said.
The Associated Press says Harris “was tasked” to deal with the “root causes” of migration from Central America.
But “root causes” were initially Harris’s words, not Joe Biden’s. They were delivered in March 2021 as Biden announced she had agreed to take on the much broader task of “stemming” migration from many countries.
According to Politico.com on August 10, Harris “resisted taking ownership of immigration” and reacted negatively to suggestions that she had a direct role in addressing border issues.
Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said Harris declined the broader mission because it is a “hot potato” within the Democratic establishment of anti-border progressives.
Following this, 10 million migrants arrived at the southern border of the United States, including large numbers from Asia, South America, and Africa. This influx has led to reduced wages and increased housing prices, which could jeopardize Harris’ chances in the 2024 election.
The surge undermined claims of success from Harris’ office.
While Harris’ staff asserted that she secured over $5.2 billion in promised investments for Central American countries, the Associated Press revealed that only $1.3 billion of that was actually spent on addressing “root causes” in the region.
This detail was mentioned in the 33rd paragraph of an AP article titled “Presented with the rise in border crossings, Kamala Harris chose a long-term approach to the problem.”
Harris’ reluctance to engage with Biden’s border efforts was evident during a March 24, 2021, event when Biden remarked:
I’ve asked her, the VP, today — because she’s the most qualified person to do it — to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the [other] countries that help — are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border … When she speaks, she speaks for me. Doesn’t have to check with me. She knows what she’s doing, and I hope we can move this along. [Emphasis added]
“The vice president has agreed … to lead our diplomatic effort and work with those nations to accept the returnees, and enhance migration enforcement at their borders,” Biden told the cameras he had invited for the occasion. [Emphasis added]
Joe Biden put Kamala Harris in charge of the Border and Immigration in March of 2021.
— Shawn Farash (@Shawn_Farash) July 24, 2024
Here's the video of when she was officially tasked with those responsibilities
pic.twitter.com/SwEcPekBWO
Harris addressed Biden’s description of her agreement to his extensive commission by emphasizing her focus on the “root causes” of migration:
Well, thank you, Mr. President, and for having the confidence in me. And there’s no question that this is a challenging situation … And while we are clear that people should not come to the border now, we also understand that we will enforce the law and that we also — because we can chew gum and walk at the same time — must address the root causes that cause people to make the trek, as the president has described, to come here. [Emphasis added]
“She was like, ‘Nope, I’m just root causes,’’” Krikorian told the Associated Press.
According to the Associated Press, some of Harris’ team members saw Biden’s commission as a “no-win assignment.”
The “border czar” directive was issued the day before Biden told reporters at a White House press conference on March 25 that he wanted many of the migrants to be sent back home.
“They should all be going back, all be going back. The only people we’re not going to let sitting there on the other side of the Rio Grande by themselves with no help are children,” Biden said.
In the same March 25 press conference, Biden seemed to refine Harris’ appointed role by echoing her focus on “root causes” and framing the increase in migration as a seasonal trend in Central America.
The way to deal with this problem — and I started to deal with it back when I was a United States senator — I mean, Vice President — putting together a bipartisan plan of over $700 million to deal with the root causes of why people are leaving.
…
That’s why I’ve asked the Vice President of the United States, yesterday, to be the lead person on dealing with focusing on the fundamental reasons why people leave Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador in the first place. It’s because of earthquakes, floods. It’s because of lack of food. It’s because of gang violence. It’s because of a whole range of things.
The media initially celebrated Harris’s 2021 appointment as “border czar,” but quickly reconsidered once she was nominated to succeed Biden.
The March 24 meeting featured Biden’s border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas, a pro-migration, Cuban-born official who dismantled Trump’s border policies starting January 20, 2021. For unclear reasons, Biden did not enforce his March 25 directive of “all be going back” with Mayorkas.
Krikorian told Breitbart News that Biden’s retreat from the issue was likely due to the party’s ideological stance against border enforcement.
He didn’t have the political flexibility to turn this off [as the flood rose]… Other people in the administration, I don’t doubt — like Susan Rice –would love to have somehow dealt with this. But what were they gonna do? Fire [border chief Alejandro] Mayorkas? Face pushback from their own people?– not just the donors, but also activists, their whole base. They were kind of stuck.
Mayorkas receives strong support from the party’s West Coast faction of pro-migration investors and donors, including notable backing from Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us advocacy group.
Since 2021, Harris has adopted the pro-migration rhetoric promoted by Mayorkas, who has utilized his legal expertise and political support to establish “safe and humane” quasi-legal pathways for migrants to enter the country and bypass cautious judges.
“The president and I are absolutely committed to ensuring that our immigration system is orderly and humane, and I do believe that we are making progress in that regard,” Harris said while standing beside Mayorkas in June 2021.
