By Shari Rendall
FAIR – State and Local Engagement Director
Vice President Kamala Harris attended a Democrat fundraiser on October 8, but she didn’t even visit the border to see the crisis caused by this administration’s policies. Rather, she focused on raising big bucks for her political allies at the fundraiser in Austin, around 230 miles from the borders at Eagle Pass and Del Rio. Despite claiming the “stakes were high up and down the ballot,” looking toward the future Vice President Harris mentioned legalizing marijuana and expanding voting rights but did not mention securing the border.
As President Joe Biden’s “border czar”, Harris is supposed to lead the White House’s efforts to tackle “the migration challenges at the southern border and work with Central American nations to address the root of the problem.” Tapping her for this role, President Biden said, “When she speaks, she speaks for me.”
Vice President Harris’ actions have spoken volumes about this administration’s immigration priorities. During her time as the “border czar”, she made one trip to the border at El Paso in June 2021. Not only was El Paso ranked among the safest cities in the nation (before the Biden Border Crisis began), but it is also far away from where the border crisis was occurring at the time. Moreover, her single visit to the border was only scheduled in the wake of the controversy she caused by her trip to Mexico City and Guatemala.
Harris’ inaction on the worst border crisis in U.S. history prompted Representative Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) to introduce the Border Czar Accountability Act of 2022. This act “will require any Cabinet member appointed by the President to lead efforts related to immigration or securing the U.S.-Mexico Border to visit the border every 60 days. It also requires the Cabinet Member(s) to submit a report to the President and Congress no later than 15 days after each visit, explaining their findings and outlining solutions for improving the security and situation at the southern border.”
Even during previous trips to Texas in early September, Harris did not make time to go to the border. In fact, Harris continues to insist the border is secure, as she did during her September 11 interview on Meet the Press. During the interview, Harris said the most important thing is amnesty. She said, “We must put in place a pathway to citizenship for the millions here illegally.” Further, Harris recently lashed out at Texas Governor Greg Abbott after he sent a bus full of illegal aliens to Harris’s official residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. “They’ve fled great harm and they are coming here seeking refuge. Talk about political theater,” she said.
Meanwhile, a FAIR analysis shows that since Joe Biden became president and appointed Harris as “border czar”, more than 4.9 million illegal aliens have crossed our borders including 900,000 “gotaways” that have eluded apprehension and disappeared into communities across the country. Even more unnerving, through August 2022, 78 individuals on the terror watch list were stopped trying to cross the United States-Mexico border between the ports of entry. This number is more than double the past five years combined. With the unprecedented level of “gotaways,” it is likely that foreign terrorists have successfully entered the country.
In the Fiscal Year 2022, through August, U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested 24,989 individuals attempting to cross the border with criminal convictions. Among those arrested were 697 criminal aliens with gang affiliations, including 288 MS-13 members.
Clearly with our southern border this “secure,” Vice President Harris had the time to attend the Johnson-Jordan fundraiser to line the Democrats’ campaign coffers with suggested donations ranging up to $10,000 per head, instead of addressing the crisis caused by this administration’s immigration policies.
