By Joey Chester
FAIR
In the early months of the Biden administration, Vice President Kamala Harris was tasked with addressing the border crisis by tackling its “root causes.” The results speak for themselves.
The administration’s strategy was supposed to involve diplomatic efforts in Central America to reduce the number of people leaving the region by tackling factors such as crime, poverty, and the rule of law. However, this so-called “root causes” strategy completely missed the most powerful drivers of mass illegal immigration to the United States: policies like catch-and-release and the overall open-borders agenda of the Biden-Harris administration.
One would assume that, as vice president tasked with addressing the root causes of a border crisis, Harris would prioritize regular communication with the United States Border Patrol chief. Astonishingly, this has not been the case.
Since Jason Owens was appointed as Border Patrol Chief in July 2023, amid an escalating border crisis, Vice President Harris has not spoken with him. Additionally, former Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz revealed that neither President Biden nor Vice President Harris had ever reached out to him during his tenure. “I’ve never had one conversation with the president or the vice president for that matter. I was chief of the Border Patrol. I commanded 21,000 people. That’s a problem,” Ortiz stated.
He’s right. And this is more than just a problem—it’s a blatant disregard for the front-line leaders essential to understanding and addressing the crisis. The chief of the Border Patrol, responsible for overseeing agents on the ground, would be a logical point of contact for any serious effort to end the border crisis. Yet, Harris has chosen to remain disengaged.
Despite her hollow admonition to would-be migrants to “not come” during a trip to Mexico and Guatemala, historic numbers of illegal aliens have continued to flood across our borders.
The Biden-Harris administration has presided over the largest wave of illegal immigration in U.S. history, with approximately ten million illegal border crossings and an additional at least 1.8 million known gotaways. Among these border crossers are alleged criminals responsible for heinous acts, such as the accused murders of Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, and Jocelyn Nungaray.
At every step, this administration has refused numerous opportunities to end the crisis it created. It has not advocated for the passage of H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, nor has it enforced existing immigration laws or taken executive action to actually secure our borders.
For President Biden, Vice President Harris is the perfect sidekick in carrying out his open-borders agenda. Vice President Harris does not even think crossing the border illegally should be a crime. She is also an advocate for amnesty for nearly all illegal aliens, and has been a strong proponent of gutting interior immigration enforcement.
Illegal immigration remains a top concern for the American people, and Vice President Harris has done nothing to alleviate their anxieties. Her failure to communicate with the leaders who know the situation best—like Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens—speaks volumes about her commitment to solving this issue.
Click here to read more about Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on immigration.
Watch Kamala Harris on immigration over the years:
