Republicans denounced Kamala Harris for her failures in dealing with the southern border crisis, but criticized Texas Governor Greg Abbott on late-night television for sending migrants to sanctuary towns to relieve stress on border communities.
Many of the lawmakers who expressed their views on the vice president’s comments represent districts in border states, which are hardest hit by the migration crisis.
Shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden appointed Harris as the person in his administration to deal with problems on the southern border, and she was soon branded the “border czar,” but those outside the White House.
But in nearly two years, Harris has only gone to the border once and has consistently said her role is to address the root causes in South and Central American countries that are driving people to leave their homes.
“Kamala has provided zero solutions as our country’s border czar,” Arizona Representative Andy Biggs wrote.
New Mexico Representative Vicky Hartzle tweeted: “Kamala Harris has been a border czar for 629 days and has yet to visit the border.”
‘She does not participate in solutions’. She’s just upset that the crisis has been put on her doorstep,” she added in response to the vice president’s comments about Governor Abbott.
Georgia Representative Jody Hice wondered, “When is the last time Kamala dealt with the national security crisis at the border? Wasn’t this her job?’
Harris used ‘Late Night’ national TV platform to penetrate Abbott’s ‘political theater’ by moving migrants from the border and dropping them off with the busload outside her official residence in Washington DC
‘Speaking of political theatre!’ said Vice President Kamala Harris, during her “Late Night” interview with host Seth Meyers, which aired Monday, Oct. 10, about Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s decision to send immigrants from Texas and put them outside her D.C. -reject residence, disapproved.
Republicans tore down Harris for her comments, claiming she has offered no solutions to the crisis, despite being called Biden’s ‘border czar’
New Mexico Representative Vicky Hartzler noted that Harris has been in her unofficial role for 629 days, but is not “participating in solutions”
“We’re talking about people who have fled great disaster,” Harris said when host Seth Meyers brought up the subject.
‘And they come here to take refuge and—talk about political theatre!’ she said. ‘I mean, playing games with people’s lives, with their lives. You know, there were mothers with sleeping babies getting off those buses. And I just think it’s an absolute dereliction of duty if you see a problem,” she said.
She responded to a question from the presenter, an alumnus of ‘Saturday Night Live’, who compared the move to ‘playing games’ but also called illegal immigration ‘a problem’.
“I don’t think, you know, playing games with people’s lives is the solution to this problem. But given the record number of arrests at the border, it’s a problem,” Meyers said.
“I think in times like these we look to our leaders. What’s the way forward?’
Arizona Representative Debbie Lesko tweeted in response to a clip of the comments: “Vice President Kamala Harris is the border czar, but she and the rest of the Biden administration have come up with ZERO solutions and have only made the border crisis WORSE .’
Virginia Representative Ben Cline called the comments “ironic” and said Harris “helped” create the crisis on the southern border that she is now suing Abbott for “treatment.”
Rep. Cline said the ‘irony’ is that Abbott is busting migrants as a way to ‘address a problem’ the vice president ‘helped create’
Texas sent more than 100 migrants from Eagle Pass to the street in front of the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, the site of the vice president’s official residence
‘The so-called ‘solution’ of the ‘border czar’? Mass amnesty and open borders,” Georgia representative Andrew Clyde tweeted.
“Kamala Harris is not interested in solutions to secure the border – she is determined to only make things worse.”
Abbott launched a plan in April whereby he began transporting migrants to DC, New York City and other Democratic enclaves.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis got on the wagon and sent a plane full of 50 migrants to the wealthy liberal island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.
‘Late Night’ host Seth Meyers called Abbott’s bus transport of migrants to Democratic enclaves ‘playing games with people’s lives’, but also called illegal immigration ‘a problem’
Harris got the heat last month when she said ‘we have a safe border’
Harris’ interview with Meyers was her second late-night appearance as vice president and her first on a broadcast network as VP.
In December, she appeared on Charlamagne Tha God’s Comedy Central show, ‘Tha God’s Honest Truth’.
Harris, who had been instructed by President Biden to focus on the “root causes” of immigration, particularly from countries in the Northern Triangle, called for broader immigration issues to be addressed.
NBC reported last week that the government is considering major immigration pressure after the midterm elections, in hopes of addressing issues that have stalled for years.
Harris’ appearance on “Late Night” was her first broadcast late night performance as VP
“If we agree we have to deal with it, if you’re a leader, help us find a solution,” Harris said, rejecting Abbott’s move. “When we first came into office, the first bill we proposed was for a citizenship path, which was to fix a broken immigration system, which was broken under the previous administration,” she said.
Abbott last week in a debate with Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke touted his own Operation Lone Star, which relies on the Texas Military Department and public security officials to provide border security.
“We shouldn’t be spending money on it because it’s all because Joe Biden hasn’t done the president’s job to secure the border,” he said in the debate.
O’Rourke objected that the “buck stops on your desk.”
Harris also spoke on other topics, including Biden’s decision to pardon people in federal prison for nonviolent marijuana offenses. “Nobody should go to jail for smoking weed, right?” said the former California prosecutor.
Abbott vandalized New York City Mayor Eric Adams when he sent migrants to New York this summer.
“Adams talked about being a refuge and welcoming illegal immigrants to the Big Apple with warm hospitality,” he wrote. ‘Talking is cheap. If he is forced to follow such an ill-considered policy, he wants to condemn anyone who pushes him to take the step.”