Vice President Kamala Harris is dodging a Wednesday request by President Joe Biden to bolster the enforcement of migration laws in Mexico and Latin American countries.
On March 24, in a televised statement, Biden directed Harris to get the Mexican and Central American governments to forcibly block poor migrants moving towards the United States. Biden said: “The Vice President … agreed to lead our diplomatic effort and work with those nations to accept returnees and enhance migration enforcement at their borders — at their borders.” [emphasis added]
Biden said that Harris would work with “the countries that need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border,” and added that it was a “tough job.”
On Friday, Symone Sanders, Harris’s press secretary, redefined the request.
“The president asked the vice president to take on the diplomatic effort, with Mexico and countries in the northern triangle to address the root causes of migration,” she said. “There are many reasons that move these folks to make this dangerous journey.”
“This is an amazing dismissal by a vice president of her president in a very public fashion,” said Ken Cuccinelli, who served as deputy homeland security chief under President Donald Trump. “I cannot ever remember seeing this happen before.”
He continued:
Harris’s avoidance of enforcement or any attempt to stem illegal immigration flow points out that they actually want large numbers of illegal aliens to come into the country. Their other legislative and executive actions make clear they intend to then give them amnesty and have them registered to vote and ultimately of course to vote.
According to the video of his statement, Biden asked Harris to do much more than Sanders’ claim of “take on the diplomatic effort.”
Biden said:
It’s our responsibility to deal with [the migration], humanely, and to in to stop what’s happening. So this [migration] increase has been consequential, but the Vice President has agreed … — and I appreciate it — agreed to lead our diplomatic effort and work with those nations to accept the returnees, and enhance migration enforcement at their borders, and their borders.
We’re already talking with Mexico about that. She’s already done that. We’re dealing with a full team, now that we have to been able to deal with problems here at home, but also to deal with it now in terms of in-countries.
And I can think of nobody who is better qualified to do this than … the woman who ran the second largest Attorney General’s office in America, after the United States Attorney General in the state of California, and has done a great deal of upholding human rights but also fighting organized crime in the process.
So, it is not her full responsibility in the job, but she’s leading the effort.
I think the best thing to do is to put someone who when he or she speaks [people] don’t have to wonder about “Is that where the President is?” When she speaks, she speaks for me.. [She] doesn’t have to check with me, she knows what she’s doing, and I hope we can move this along.
So Madam Vice President, thank you. I gave you a tough job and you’re smiling.
3:30 in the VIDEO HERE:
Harris replied:
Well, thank you Mr. President and for having the confidence in me, and there’s no question that this is a challenging situation. As the President has said, there are many factors that lead [people] to leave these countries …
I look forward to engaging in diplomacy with government, with private sector, with civil society and the leaders of each in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, to strengthen democracy and the rule of law, and ensure shared prosperity in the region.
Breitbart News reported March 26:
[Sanders] said Biden had tasked the vice president with the “diplomatic efforts” to address the root causes of migration from Latin America.
Sanders said Harris had made a “number of calls” on the issue but did not plan any trips to the border “in the near future.”
“This is not work that will be addressed overnight,” Sanders said. “This is a challenging situation, as you heard the vice president and president speak to but it’s it’s diplomatic work that needs to be done and Vice President Harris. Looking forward to doing it.
She said Harris had also received a briefing on the Northern Triangle since Biden tasked her with the diplomatic efforts.
“You can expect she will be speaking with leaders from the region in the near future,” she said.
During his four years in office, President Donald Trump frequently participated directly in migration disputes. In 2019, for example, Trump brushed aside his pro-business advisors and threatened to crimp Mexican trade with the United States. Shortly after, Mexico’s government agreed to block migrants and also to allow the United States to send migrants back to Mexico until their day in U.S. asylum court.
The “Remain in Mexico” policy drastically reduced migration because it denied migrants the jobs and wages they needed to pay off their smuggling debts.
Trump’s homeland defense chiefs, especially Chad Wolf, also conducted diplomatic negotiations with governments in the region. In 2020, he helped create anti-migration treaties that allowed the United States to transport migrants back to Central American countries when they asked for asylum in the United States.
Biden’s migration aides, including homeland defense chief Alejandro Mayorkas, canceled the Remain in Mexico program and the treaties with Central American countries.
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