The vice president and the border

While we are unlikely to unravel the Machiavellian politics of succession to the presidency, the message from the White House has been that Vice President Kamala Harris is the preferred banner carrier. She was already the focus of tremendous attention because of President Joe Biden’s age and the likelihood that she would need to replace him at some point should he prevail in the 2024 race. But now that she has been endorsed by her receding running mate, scrutiny grows concerning her record, particularly as it pertains to the immigration crisis and the chaotic U.S. border with Mexico.

Republicans have reacted to the increasing importance of Vice President Harris by zeroing in on her involvement with the pressing issue. Some Republicans have taken to referring to her as President Biden’s “border czar,” given her assignment from the White House early in the Biden administration. The New York Times, almost as though acting as the vice president’s advocate, has repeatedly stated that Harris has never been named the border czar and merely has had the same task as Biden had under President Barack Obama, which is simply to try and find a way to address the root causes of the immigration problem regarding countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Well then, an immediate question arises: What has been the fruit of all that vice presidential energy supposedly expended by Biden and then Harris?

Despite the defense offered by the Times, Harris will unavoidably own the Biden administration’s immigration crisis. Indeed, the vice president has not been officially designated as the border czar by title. But it is equally true that the Biden administration’s record concerning immigration has been disastrous. The border has been besieged throughout Biden’s presidency, with record illegal crossings. The crisis has been exacerbated by the president’s decision to take a more liberal approach to border control. Earlier this year, Biden attempted to draw the Republicans into a legislative compromise designed to address the spiraling crisis. Ultimately, they didn’t bite. But one is left to wonder why exactly new legislation was needed. The previous administration controlled immigration much more effectively and did so under existing law. Illegal immigration, by definition, is an act that should trigger enforcement efforts in the same way any crime does. And the president sits at the top of the federal law enforcement apparatus.

Harris, as the vice president (and with a policy portfolio clearly tied to immigration), cannot hold herself at a remove from the continuing nightmare of a border that is all but completely beyond recognizable order. One of the core functions of a nation is to maintain control over its boundaries. To fail to do so is to fail in one of the most fundamental ways a nation can fail. The southern border of the United States is indeed difficult to police, but it is also clearly and demonstrably the case that the policies employed have a clear effect on controlling or exacerbating the problem. While Donald Trump ran on, prioritized, and achieved greater control, the Biden administration (and its second in command, Harris) opted for a much more permissive approach, which has led to a swelling disaster.

According to the Gallup organization, 55 percent of Americans now want to curb immigration, the most in a quarter century. Only now that the issue has regularly been identified by the public as a top priority has the current administration really begun to show a pretense of serious concern. While it is true that the vice president never carried a title as grand as border czar, she was the second highest ranking official in the government, she had an explicit assignment, and she could surely have addressed greater energy and effectiveness to the issue than she did. Instead of achievement, we had a debate over whether she was willing to spend time at all at the border.

The human cost is severe for those on both sides of the line. The stakes are often life and death. It is time to curtail the mixed messages that cause so many to take a chance on getting through and then evading capture. It is also clearly time to find a way to know who is crossing, how they are crossing, and to prevent the flood of deadly drugs into the United States. Former President Trump, like him or hate him, has been exceptionally clear about his determination to control the border. The new Democratic front-runner should take this moment to put an end to four years of ineffectiveness and lack of ownership and assert a policy that actually has a chance of succeeding.