Vice President Kamala Harris has been tasked with overseeing the White House response to the border between the United States and Mexico. On the other hand, Harris has spoken widely on the topic of immigration in the past, even before her Wednesday appointment.
Harris said her stance on border issues before she was appointed
After being appointed head of the Biden administration's border response, Kamala Harris said, "There's no denying that this is a difficult situation... While we are clear that people can not come to the border right now, we also recognize that we can uphold the law and that, since we can chew gum and walk at the same time, we must solve the root factors that lead people to make the journey mentioned by the president."
"An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal," Harris told KCBS-TV in Los Angeles in 2015 while acting as California's Attorney General. When working as a Senator in California, Harris voted against an immigration bill in 2018, claiming that while it would include a road to citizenship for many young immigrants, it offered too much funding for former President Donald Trump's border wall.
In her 2019 book, "The Truths We Hold," Harris also discussed her immigration and border views. In her book, Harris wrote about the border wall, saying, "A border wall with Mexico was a complete waste of public funds. While I am a firm believer in border security, experts accept that a wall would not protect our borders." According to Newsweek via MSN, Harris also lambasted former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He was in charge of the zero-tolerance border program that split immigrant children from their families in her book.
During a Democratic primary debate in June 2019, Harris expressed her views once more, saying that one of her first steps will be to reinstate DACA if elected president. "I would have put in place an effective mechanism for assessing asylum cases right away. I'm going to free the kids from their cages. I'm going to abolish private detention centers," at the debate, Harris said.
In a Democratic presidential debate in 2019, Harris was asked whether an immigrant should be deported if their only offense is being illegal, and she said, "No, they should not be deported." Harris was also asked whether the government could try to prosecute those who cross the border unlawfully. Harris responded by recounting a visit she made to a private migrant detention center.
Donald Trump Says He Wrote a Letter to Joe Biden 'From the Heart'
Biden tasks VP Kamala Harris in tackling the migrant influx
President Joe Biden said while announcing Harris' appointment as his immigration czar to reporters and White House officials that she is the most capable person to do so, to lead efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle, and the countries that are going to need support in stopping the influx of so many people - stemming the flow to our southern border. Biden said of Harris' previous job as California's attorney general, saying, "As she speaks, she speaks for me." Many of those crossing the border are fleeing Central America's poverty and violence.
As photos show children being born in overcrowded conditions in temporary shelters, the administration continues to call the situation a "crisis." Biden mentioned 'serious spikes' in people traveling to the southern border, blaming the Trump administration, BBC News reported.
Meanwhile, in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, Harris stressed the urgency of tackling the causes that drove migration, such as the pervasive scourge of gang violence. Biden is attempting to replicate his experience as Barack Obama's vice president by entrusting the matter to Harris. Obama appointed Biden early in his first term to address one of the administration's most pressing issues: the White House initiative to reduce U.S. troop levels in the intractable Iraq war.
A surge in border crossings has resulted in the detention of over 16,000 migrant children in the United States. To deal with the surge, the government plans to open six additional emergency shelters, as per Daily Mail.
