Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on Sunday, is yet to speak to the current head of Border Patrol — despite a continued crisis at the southern border, and her role in tackling “root causes” of the crisis.
Sources familiar confirmed to Fox News that Harris has not spoken to Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens, who became chief last year amid a raging crisis at the border which is now into its third year.
Earlier this year, former Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said he had not heard from either Biden or Harris during his tenure as head of the agency.
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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally on June 28, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“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 said on “60 Minutes.” NewsNation first reported that Harris had not spoken to either chief. Customs and Border Protection and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Harris was tasked by President Biden in 2021 with leading the diplomatic outreach to tackle the “root causes” of migration in the Northern Triangle countries. It led to her being dubbed the “border czar” by Republicans, although the White House has rejected that description.
Then-Chief Patrol Agent Jason D. Owens poses for a photo at the Houlton Sector headquarters of the U.S. Border Patrol in Hodgdon on Tuesday, August 20, 2019. (Gregory Rec/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
It turned out to be a politically challenging assignment for Harris, given that it came amid the historic surge in encounters that ultimately saw records broken in three subsequent fiscal years.
Harris would visit Mexico and Guatemala in 2021 as part of that beat — during which she would tell migrants “do not come” — as well as visiting the border in El Paso, Texas. A project to rally private-sector investment in the region via a call to action has seen more than $5.2 billion committed since May 2021 from over 50 companies and organizations.
Additionally, while it is unclear the extent to which investment has played a role, the number of encounters from those three countries has fallen from over 700,000 in FY 21 to over 330,000 so far as of May, with four months left to go. However, those Northern Triangle countries, along with Mexico, are still the top countries from which migrants arrive at the border.
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Harris’ record on immigration will likely be highly scrutinized in the months ahead after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race and backed Harris to be his successor.
Polls have shown that the crisis has been a top priority for voters. Republicans have hammered the administration on the crisis, saying its rolling back of Trump-era policies set off the crisis in the first place.
The Biden administration has said it needs funding and reforms from Congress, and introduced a day one comprehensive immigration reform bill. It was rejected by Republicans due to the inclusion of a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
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It has since called for the passage of a bipartisan Senate package introduced earlier this year. Harris backed that package in a statement.
“This agreement on border security and immigration does not include everything we have fought for over the past three years — and we will continue to fight for these priorities — but it shows we can make the border more secure while preserving legal immigration, consistent with our values as a nation,” she said.
Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.