Vice President Kamala Harris quickly rose to national attention Sunday after President Biden effectively ended his reelection bid and publicly endorsed her to step up to the Democratic ticket ahead of the November elections.
"Democrats— it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this," Biden said in a post on the social media platform X.
In that post, Biden also supported Harris to replace him on the ticket, highlighting her achievements as Vice President, and noting how proud he is of having chosen her to be his running mate back in 2020.
Soon after the announcement, however, Republicans sought to blame Harris for one of the issues that have plagued the Biden administration— unauthorized immigration through the U.S.-Mexico border.
In a phone conversation with CBS News on Saturday, a day before Biden's announcement, former President Donald Trump said Harris presided over the "worst border ever" as "border czar", a title her Republican detractors often give her.
But while Vice President Harris has been involved in dealing with the immigration crisis, her role in it may not have been exactly how her Republican counterparts paint it to be. Here's what you should know.
Where does Harris stand on immigration?
Harris concurs with Biden and other Democrats on immigration. In February this year, Harris said that the U.S. immigration system was "broken" telling New York's Spectrum News: "We know, and I think many people have known for a long time, that our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed.
In 2021, she visited the southern border and said, "this issue cannot be reduced to a political issue. We're talking about children, we're talking about families, we are talking about suffering."
Most recently, she endorsed the popular bipartisan border security bill, which would have closed the border if crossings reached a certain threshold, and it would have funded thousands of new border security agents and asylum officers. However, the bill ultimately didn't pass, as former President Donald Trump urged Congress Republicans to oppose it.
What is Harris' immigration role under the Biden administration?
When the current unprecedented influx of migrant crossings at the southern border was first starting in 2021, Biden tasked Harris with leading the administration's diplomatic campaign to address the "root causes" of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, including poverty, corruption and violence.
However, unlike the GOP is painting, Harris was not tasked to be the administration's "border czar" or to oversee immigration policy and enforcement in the U.S.-Mexico border. That role is mainly given to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and his department, which oversees the country's main three immigration agencies, including Customs and Border Protection.
Under her assignment, Harris has primarily been focused on convincing companies to invest in Central America and promoting democracy and development through diplomacy. In March of this year, the White House announced Harris has secured a commitment from the private sector to invest over $5 billion to promote economic opportunities and reduce violence in the region.
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