Consider This from NPR - Can Kamala Harris find her footing on immigration?

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

In just a matter of hours, a Kamala Harris for President campaign has gone from a far-flung possibility, to all but certain likelihood. It puts the Vice President in a tricky spot. She's got to run on President Biden's achievements, while avoiding the more challenging aspects of his record. Biden entrusted Harris with some of the most challenging parts of his portfolio, including voting rights, the rollback of reproductive rights and immigration.Harris has struggled to find her footing on immigration. Early on, she faced criticism for having not visited the southern border.As Republicans like Texas Governor Greg Abbott started bussing migrants to northern cities, the Vice President's mansion in Washington DC became a drop-off point. Even though Kamala Harris isn't yet the official nominee, both voters and the republican party will force her to answer for the Biden administration's immigration policies in this year's election. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In just a matter of hours, a Kamala Harris for president campaign has gone from a far-flung possibility to an all but certain likelihood. It puts the vice president in a tricky spot. She's got to run on President Biden's achievements while avoiding the more challenging aspects of his record. And Biden entrusted Harris with some of the most challenging parts of his portfolio, including voting rights, the rollback of reproductive rights, and immigration. I said when we became a team and got elected that the vice president was going to be the last person in the room. She didn't realize that means she gets every assignment. That's President Biden in the state dining room in March 2021.

That day, he announced that Harris would be responsible for trying to address the root causes of the crisis on the U.S. southern border. I've asked her, the VP today, because she's the most qualified person to do it, to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks stemming the migration to our southern border. Since then, Harris has struggled to find her footing on immigration. Early on, she faced criticism for having not visited the southern border. Here she is with NBC's Lester Holt. We've been to the border. You haven't been to the border. And I haven't been to Europe. And I don't understand the point that you're making.

As Republicans like Texas Governor Greg Abbott started busing migrants to northern cities, the vice president's mansion in Washington, D.C. became a drop-off point. For the second time in less than a week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent another busload of migrants to the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris. They arrived early yesterday. Now, President Joe Biden has stepped aside from the 2024 election race, and he's endorsed Harris to be the Democratic nominee. Republicans have worked quickly to attack her on immigration. Here was GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance speaking sarcastically about Harris at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan over the weekend. We have to give her credit, my friends.

She did serve as border czar during the biggest disaster open border that we've ever had in this country. Let's get President Trump back there, close down that border, and bring some common sense and security to this country. Independent and swing voters also link Harris to problems at the border, says Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, who describes herself as a never-Trumper. That's one of the things I hear voters sort of on the more center-right bring up about her, is that, you know, she didn't do anything about the border. Consider this. Even though Kamala Harris isn't yet the official Democratic presidential nominee, both voters and the Republican Party will force her to answer for the Biden administration's immigration policies in this year's election.

From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Consider This from NPR. How could the Biden administration's record on immigration affect a Kamala Harris presidential candidacy? That's a conversation my colleague Elsa Chang had with NPR's Sergio Martinez Beltran. Okay, so Republicans have been attacking her, calling her the border czar. What exactly has been her role on immigration

as vice president? 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 Mallorca. He's the one who manages all of the

immigration agencies. Right, but clearly immigration is one of the main issues that Harris is vulnerable on, right? Tell us why. 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, Elsa. In 2021, for example, BP Harris went to Mexico and Guatemala, where she warned migrants who were thinking about crossing the border illegally. 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. 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 Brown-Dianis with the Civil Rights Group Advancement Project. She says Harris will now have to explain how she would tackle immigration as president. 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. Dionys says this is an opportunity for Harris to move immigration in a different direction and talk about her policies. 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? A few things. You know, one is the country of origin of migrants attempting to cross. In 2020, nearly 90 percent 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 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. Well, Republicans want to paint Harris as the one who's been responsible for those high numbers during the Biden year. So how might Harris push back on that Republican argument, you think? 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. That is NPR's Sergio Martinez Beltran. Thank you so much, Sergio. You're welcome. This episode was produced by Mark Rivers and Jordan Marie Smith. That is NPR's Sergio Martinez Beltran. the All Things Considered team. You can sign up at npr.org slash consider this newsletter. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.