A look at Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on immigration

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Vice President Kamala Harris has come under attack from Republicans on multiple issues, but perhaps the issue she is most vulnerable on is immigration. Minutes after President Biden announced yesterday that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Harris, Republicans started going after her record. They've been blaming her for the unprecedented number of unauthorized migrant crossings during the first three years of the Biden administration. NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán has been following all of this and joins us now. Hi, Sergio.

SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Hey.

CHANG: Hey. OK, so Republicans have been attacking her, calling her the border czar. What exactly has been her role on immigration as vice president?

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah. So she was tasked to lead a pretty broad effort of addressing and finding solutions to the root causes of migration from Central America - big issues like poverty, violence and corruption. But conservatives have tried to paint a picture that she's in charge of border policy, hence the made-up, inaccurate term border czar. But that's the role of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. He's the one who manages all of the immigration agencies.

CHANG: Right. But clearly immigration is one of the main issues that Harris is vulnerable on, right? Tell us why.

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Well, in part, because she has been shifting her policy positions over time as a former DA in California and now as vice president. She's called Trump's border wall a medieval vanity project. And as a senator, she grilled Trump's immigration officials. But she has also angered immigration advocates, Ailsa. In 2021, for example, VP Harris went to Mexico and Guatemala, where she warned migrants who were thinking about crossing the border illegally.

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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border. Do not come. Do not come.

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Those three words - do not come - sparked criticism from many immigration advocates and Democrats. They saw them as paternalistic and tone-deaf given all the issues in their home countries. I talked to Judith Browne Dianis with the civil rights group Advancement Project. She says Harris will now have to explain how she would tackle immigration as president.

JUDITH BROWNE DIANIS: Is it a humanitarian response? Or is there a criminalization response, right? That is not the way to go. We don't need more criminalization. We don't need a border wall. We need to get to root causes. We need to make sure that people are taken care of.

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Dianis says this is an opportunity for Harris to move immigration in a different direction and talk about her policies.

CHANG: Right. And the situation at the border - it's different now than when Harris was first tapped to focus on it. What exactly has changed?

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Right. So a few things. One is the country of origin of migrants attempting to cross. In 2020, nearly 90% of migrants arrested at the Southern border were from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. In 2023, that number went down about 49%. There was a big increase in the number of Venezuelans and folks from other South American countries. The other big change, Ailsa, is the number of unauthorized migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. Last year, that number hit an all-time high although there has been a dramatic decrease over the last four months due to Mexico's enforcement and Biden's asylum restrictions.

CHANG: Well, Republicans want to paint Harris as the one who's been responsible for those high numbers during the Biden years. So how might Harris push back on that Republican argument, you think?

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Well, polling shows immigration is one of the most important issues for voters. Messaging will matter a lot, you know? Harris is likely to talk about how she pushed for a bipartisan border reform deal that was defeated by Republicans at the urging of former President Trump, that he's the one who killed the agreement. She's likely to use that during her campaign, but it may be a hard message to sell.

CHANG: That is NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. Thank you so much, Sergio.

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.