Amid record-breaking border crossings and legal drama over the fate of Title 42, critics say one voice has been repeatedly silenced; US Vice President Kamala Harris.
Last July, Vice President Kamala Harris visited El Paso and warned migrants not to come on a trip to Guatemala. However, in recent months, she has confined her discussion of the problem to one-on-one sessions and swapped public remarks for printed comments.
DHS Braces for More Immigrants as Title 42 Nears To End
Kamala Harris seems to have attended only one public migration-related event this year, a January 27 travel to Honduras to attend President Xiomara Castro's inauguration. During her visit, Harris stated that focusing on the underlying reasons for migration will not solve the US-Mexico border situation overnight. Mark Morgan, who oversaw the US Border Patrol in the closing months of Obama's presidency before taking over as head of US Customs and Border Protection,
Over the last six months, Kamala Harris has held a handful of migration-related events, the majority of which were closed to the public and focused on increasing private-sector investment in Central America to deter economic migration rather than restricting or stopping the flow of new arrivals across the US-Mexico border.
On December 13, Harris launched a $1.2 billion private-sector investment in Central America to eliminate poverty, which leads to migration, engaging Pepsi, Cargill, Mastercard, and other large US firms to assist in job creation in the region.
However, since that public occasion, the majority of her engagements have been private. On January 10, Kamala Harris spoke with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, and the official US readout indicated a conversation about the core causes of migration, trafficking, economic growth, and anti-corruption.
The Department of Homeland Security is ready for more border record-breaking numbers, and NBC News reports that there is concern within the department that if Title 42 is lifted, they will not have enough funding to deal with a surge, compounding a challenge that Biden has faced since taking office.
Concern mounted, even among Democrats, as the number of interdictions increased and catastrophic pictures from the southern border filled cable television. According to the New York Times, Biden's pollsters cautioned that the problem was a rising weakness. Biden is still alive.
VP's Schedule Doesn't Include Immigration-Focused Event
Since assuming the presidency, Biden has urged Congress to consider comprehensive immigration reform. On Capitol Hill, there is a little bipartisan appetite for the bill he delivered to Congress on his first day in office. The administration has now been left to its own devices, and Harris issued a 20-page plan to address the issue last July.
According to the Los Angeles Times' analysis of that calendar, Kamala Harris has not held an immigration-related event since last summer. Last August, at a White House meeting with Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander leaders, immigration was briefly discussed.
Officials from the White House deny that Harris' published itinerary tells the entire story. The vice president's policy portfolio still includes dealing with the problem. She chairs high-level discussions that are not usually made public and has played a key role in regional diplomatic initiatives. For example, Harris was present in Honduras for President Xiomara Castro's inauguration in January.
Officials in the administration hoped to discover a new partner in that executive, someone who might assist slow the flow of millions of migrants traveling north through Central America to the southern border. According to an official White House statement, Harris and Castro discussed various subjects, including migration, coronavirus, the economy, corruption, and gender-based violence, New York Post reported.
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