Vice President Kamala Harris has been put in charge of addressing the “root causes” of migration that drive people from Central America to flee to the United States.
But after three and a half years as President Joe Biden’s “border czar,” Republicans say Harris has failed to do her job in quelling the growing migration crisis at the southern border and that her policies have exacerbated the problem.
Sen. JD Vance says Harris’ failure to do her job is the “root cause” of the current crisis.
Since Biden took office in 2021, Customs and Border Protection has encountered more than 8 million migrants along the southern border.
Harris has been tasked with working with countries where large concentrations of these asylum seekers are coming from to find a way to make them feel less compelled to flee.
Sen. JD Vance says Kamala Harris’ failure as ‘border czar’ is the real ‘root cause’ of illegal immigration crisis
Her first international trip as Vice President was in June 2021, when she visited Guatemala and Mexico, resulting in the creation of task forces to combat corruption and human trafficking, and the financing of investments for housing and businesses in the region.
Republicans are highly critical of this approach, saying Harris has done nothing to really influence the number of immigrants crossing into the United States illegally.
Vance said he believes the Department of Homeland Security is actually undercounting the number of illegal immigrants.
“Whatever the actual number is, it’s too high. It’s millions and millions of illegal immigrants who have come since Kamala Harris became the border czar a few years ago,” Vance told NBC News anchor Kristen Welker in an interview that aired Sunday morning.
Welker attempted to clarify: “She was put in charge of the root causes of migration.”
“Well, I would say, Kristen, that the root cause of migration is Kamala Harris refusing to do her job as border czar,” he joked.
Harris and Democrats at the National Convention in Chicago last week said the border can be secured while allowing asylum seekers to enter the United States.
More than 8 million migrants have crossed illegally or sought asylum at the southern border since President Joe Biden took office and put Vice President Harris in charge of addressing the migration crisis.
Democrats have long supported the semantics of Harris’s job addressing the border crisis, saying her role is to help Central American countries develop strategies to improve conditions so that residents don’t feel the need to leave and seek asylum in the U.S.
But Republicans say he was supposed to address the crisis at the border and has failed to do so by reducing illegal crossings.
Vance says the only way to successfully address the illegal immigration crisis is to end Biden’s presidency in January and allow Trump to reinstate his policies in a second term.