While supporters of Vice President Harris deny that the term “border czar” should be used to describe her, she received the label formally Thursday in a bipartisan House resolution that rebuked her and the Biden administration for their failures in confronting illegal immigration.
And it’s been a long time coming, according to the former head of the union representing thousands of Border Patrol agents.
“It’s long overdue but absolutely warranted; better late than never,” Brandon Judd, the former president of the National Border Patrol Council, told Fox News Digital. “When you look at her record on March 21, when she was appointed to deal with the root causes of migration – that, of course, is the definition of a border czar – she failed to do it.”
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Vice President Harris was tasked early on in the Biden administration with addressing the root causes of mass migration from Central and South America. (Reuters/Kevin Mohatt/Pool)
Harris has been widely criticized for her approach to immigration for years. Her outgoing boss, President Biden, tasked her with doing something about the root causes of illegal immigration from three countries that were problematic at the time: Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, also known as the Northern Triangle. But between 2021 and 2023, illegal crossings reached their highest levels ever.
“She didn’t look at the push factor from the cartels that go out and drive this. She refused to discuss crime. She refused to discuss the criminality that exists on the border,” Judd said. “All she did was talk about issues that existed well before her term as vice president and issues that have existed forever. And yet, even though those issues existed, President Trump didn’t have any problems dealing with those.”
During her failed presidential bid in 2020, she supported the decriminalization of illegal immigration during a televised debate. She is now the Democrats’ 2024 front-runner after Biden backed out of the race over the weekend. He had stumbled through a debate against his Republican opponent, former President Trump, last month and failed for weeks to reassure voters – and the Democrat elite – that he was fit to be commander in chief.
Migrants try to illegally enter the U.S. by rushing at a border wall on March 21, 2024. (James Breeden for New York Post/Mega)
Months before the debate sparked questions about his mental well-being, Biden reached a record-low approval rating for his immigration policies, Fox News Polls found.
Migrants have more recently been seen crossing the southern border after traveling there from around the world, including as far away as Asia and Africa. Illegal immigration from China has increased by 8,000%, according to Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C.
“Criminal illegals have taken innocent lives across America, fentanyl is pouring in and over 100,000 individuals now die from drug overdoses each year,” Murphy said in a statement after voting in favor of the condemnation. “Moreover, our legal immigration process has been defiled and the sovereignty of our nation has been eroded.”
Illegal immigrants dressed in camouflage were found while being smuggled into the country. (Zavala County Sheriff’s Office)
Through the first half of this year, the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua expanded its presence on American soil and has been blamed for a robbery wave in New York City that targeted women’s cellphones and purses.
Harris’ supporters have refused to acknowledge her as a “border czar” and say her mandate was not to address illegal immigration from other countries outside the Northern Triangle.
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People wait to cross the border between Mexico and the United States in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Dec. 27, 2023. (Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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The House resolution, however, formally dubs Harris the “Border Czar” and condemns her and the Biden administration for their “failure to secure the United States border.”
Migrant crime has been another problem under the Biden administration. Statistics are not readily available, but police departments who have historically declined to comment on the immigration status of arrested suspects have been conspicuously vocal after arresting illegals in connection with heinous crimes.
President Biden walks along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
“She failed to deal with the root causes that she identified, and then she went a step further and refused to discuss the cause of the criminality that exists on the border,” Judd said. “This is a great vote to condemn her, and I’m glad to see that even Democrats joined in support.”
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Six Democrats, including four from states bordering Mexico or Canada, joined all Republicans in voting for the measure, which passed, 220-196.
“We’ve been told that Vice President Harris’ job was to find the root causes of the crisis. [It] turns out to do so, she could have just looked in the mirror,” House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., said during a House debate on the measure.
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The top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., called the measure condemning Harris a “second-rate attempt at election interference.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., accused Republicans of “making up” the “border czar” title.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.