In early 2021, President Biden enlisted Vice President Kamala Harris to help with a slice of the migration issue — a move that has turned into one of the newly presumptive presidential nominee’s first campaign headaches.
Confusion around the VP’s exact role, early media misfires and the rapidly changing regional migration crisis has made the issue a top target for the GOP trying to define their new opponent. And it has become even more critical for Harris to find a clear border message, quickly.
The administration’s early infighting, blame-shifting and indecision around their border response does not help her, either.
In the past few days, the Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the “border czar” title — which she never actually had.
“Harris was appointed ‘border czar’ in March of 2021, and since that time, millions and millions of illegal aliens have invaded our country and countless Americans have been killed by migrant crime because of her willful demolition of American borders and laws,” Trump told reporters on a call on Tuesday.
House GOP Chair Elise Stefanik introduced a resolution condemning the administration and its “Border Czar” for failing to secure the U.S.
Harris supporters have rushed to her defense. “She assumed the role that Vice President Biden had during the Obama administration, which is diplomacy with Central America,” former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson told Fox
News on Tuesday. “She is not the border czar.”
In March 2021, Biden tapped Harris to lead the administration’s coordination with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, which were key sources of migration to the border.
The announcement led to near-immediate confusion in the media and in the White House over how involved Harris would be, with Republicans and some news outlets, giving Harris the unofficial monicker of “border czar.”
Shortly after, the border surge had grown into a full-blown humanitarian and political crisis.
The “border czar” narrative stuck, especially in conservative circles, and calls mounted in spring 2021 for Harris to visit the border.
Immigration has remained a top concern for U.S. voters, and for the first time in almost two decades, a majority of Americans say there should be less immigration, according to Gallup.
Making a clear immigration pitch to voters could be critical for Harris’ campaign.
Will Kamala Harris stop the migration of the Latino vote to the Republicans?
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