Kamala Harris used her time in the Senate to sharply criticize the Trump administration’s immigration policies, but the tables have turned now that she is running for president.
Harris raised her profile as a California senator with legislation to address former President Donald Trump’s family separation policy for migrants, tough questions for immigration officials and calls for an investigation over the death of a transgender migrant in immigration custody.
But Trump and Republican lawmakers now have pivoted from President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to framing Harris as largely responsible for the Biden administration’s immigration policies, as they put the issue at the forefront in the race for the White House.
Trump himself joined a campaign call last week for news reporters that focused on Harris’ role on immigration during the Biden administration, raising the alarm that “the largest invasion in history is now taking place at our southern border.”
“Last month, it was reported that more than 50 radical Islamic terrorists are loose in the United States after being let go through the open border — right through our open border, and Kamala and Joe Biden have no idea where they are, who they are or anything about them,” Trump said. “I don’t think they even care.”
Brandon Judd, former president of the National Border Patrol Council, said in the call Harris’ record shows “a complete disregard for border security,” citing stories on migrants being raped and suffering brutal violence at the hands of cartels on the journey to the United States.
“VP Harris knows the solution, but she refuses to implement them, leaving me to conclude she is either politically power hungry for the base support, or she is dangerously incompetent,” Judd said. “I’ve concluded it’s both.”
Vice presidential nominee and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, announced plans to go to the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday in Arizona and is expected to criticize Harris’ positions on immigration.
House action
In February, the House impeached Mayorkas for “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust” tied to the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
But last week, House Republicans passed a resolution that condemned Harris for her role as “border czar,” a label that has become a partisan battleground about how best to characterize the role the president gave her on immigration.
During the floor debate, Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, R-Tenn., linked Harris to the fentanyl crisis and stories of crime associated with migrants coming across the border.
“We’ve been told that Vice President Harris’ job was to find the root causes of the crisis,” Green said. “It turns out that to do so, she could have just looked into the mirror. Now, it would be charitable to say that Vice President Harris is completely out of her depth when it comes to securing the border.”
Six Democrats joined Republicans to pass the resolution, which “strongly condemns” the Biden administration and Harris for “failure to secure the United States border” and “clearly and firmly states” that the continuation of Biden administration policies would be “disastrous” for the country.
The six Democrats — Yadira Caraveo of Colorado, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Mary Peltola of Alaska and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington — are either from moderate districts or districts near the southern border.
The defections demonstrate the potential for that issue to hurt Harris in the presidential election even far from the immediate impact at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Republicans have long been playing the issue to their advantage, pursuing border security legislation and promising to make it a priority. The House passed a tough border security bill that would authorize border wall construction; and the fiscal 2024 Homeland Security appropriations bill, which would provide $2.1 billion for a border wall with a requirement for a contract within 120 days. The legislation, however, is unlikely to find approval in the Senate.
Some border issues have split Senate Democrats, who sought to work with Senate Republicans on a bipartisan compromise that conservative lawmakers later scuttled. Critics accuse Republicans of complying with Trump’s demand to kill the legislation because he thinks the legislation would have helped Biden in the election.
Harris defense
Meanwhile, Harris and Democrats are playing defense over immigration. They point out that at the start of his administration her role was not “border czar,” but to travel to Central American countries to better understand the root causes of migrant flow into the United States.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the committee, responded on the floor by accusing Republicans of “wasting time” by moving forward with the nonbinding resolution.
“Make no mistake: This resolution is only before this body because Vice President Harris will be Democratic nominee for president.” Thompson said. “Testing new campaign messaging though, is not a good use of the House’s time. Yet this is all this resolution offers. It changes absolutely nothing. It does not even pretend to change anything.”
The Harris campaign has responded to Republicans’ “border czar” moniker by seeking to draw attention to Trump’s own immigration policies and efforts to thwart a deal in the Biden administration.
“The only ‘plan’ Donald Trump has to secure our border is ripping mothers from their children and a few xenophobic placards at the Republican National Convention,” Harris campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said. “He tanked the bipartisan border security deal because, for Donald Trump, this has never been about solutions but just running on a problem.”
“Like everything with Donald Trump, it’s never been about helping the country, it’s only about helping himself,” Munoz said. “There’s only one candidate in this race who will fight for bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security, and that’s Vice President Harris.”
Biden, before he dropped out of the election, and amid the perception he could be politically vulnerable on immigration, implemented standards for asylum-seekers, much to the chagrin of progressive elements of his party who criticized him for that move on humanitarian grounds. The administration followed up with a policy providing a new path for undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens to stay in the United States.
The new policies show signs of working to stem the flow of migrants across the border. In June, immigration officials reported a total of 130,419 encounters at the southwest border, the lowest number since February 2021 and a marked decrease from when the Biden administration saw its highest number of 370,890 in December 2023, according to a data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Harris as senator
Criticism of an administration’s immigration policies was part of how Harris made a name in the Senate.
When the Trump administration was under heavy fire for its family separation policy deemed too harsh for migrants seeking to enter the United States, Harris led a group of Democratic senators for a bill that would require the government to work to reunite those families.
Harris also took then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to task during a Senate committee hearing in 2018 for the Trump administration’s immigration policy, questioning her on whether she was directed to enact a family separation policy as a deterrent, which she denied.
“In the course of carrying out these actions, the administration has routinely provided misleading information to this committee and has even gone so far as to say that policies separating families are carried out in the best interest of the child,” Harris said.
Harris’ record in challenging the Trump administration on immigration policy has extended to other related issues. When reports in 2019 emerged that Roxsana Hernández, a transgender migrant and asylum-seeker from Honduras, died in immigration detention, Harris was among the senators demanding a special counsel investigate charges of abuse by immigration officials.
An independent autopsy later found Hernández had died of AIDS-related complications and not treatment in ICE custody, according to a report in NBC News.
Harris also sought to aid young undocumented immigrants who pursue college education or military service, also known as Dreamers. The California Democrat was among the lead sponsors of legislation that would allow them to work in paid employment on Capitol Hill and fought for the so-called DREAM Act, which would grant them a path to citizenship.
Harris was a vocal critic when the Trump administration revoked policies to grant young undocumented immigrants deferred action on removal from the United States. In an op-ed for Elle magazine in December 2017, Harris wrote the reversal “is part of a much broader attempt to target immigrants.”
“This Administration has ignited anti-immigrant sentiment, characterizing immigrants as rapists, murderers, and people who are going to steal your jobs,” Harris wrote. “That could not be further from the truth.”
The spelling of Rep. Yadira Caraveo was corrected in this report.
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