“The vice president was never in charge of the border. That job belongs to Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, and to Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, a combination of right-wing spin, media fascination during Harris\u2019s early tenure, miscommunication from the White House, and growing migrant surges during the Biden presidency have all made that label stick. Now, it stands as one of the more serious challenges Harris faces”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“in March 2021, when Biden announced that he would be giving Harris essentially the same assignment he got during his own vice presidency: coordinating diplomatic relationships to address the \u201croot causes\u201d of migration into the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve asked her, the VP, today \u2014 because she\u2019s the most qualified person to do it \u2014 to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that help \u2014 are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border,\u201d Biden said during a White House meeting on migration on March 24, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea behind this approach is a long-term strategy: Border surges were just one symptom of deeper economic, diplomatic, and security problems these countries face that cause people to make the trek north. The assignment was a bit cursed from the start \u2014 a \u201cpolitically treacherous job with little short-term payoff,\u201d as it was described<\/a> by the Los Angeles Times \u2014 because any benefits from addressing these root causes would obviously take time to appear. Meanwhile, the border saw more legal as well as illegal crossings every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senior White House officials who briefed reporters before the announcement emphasized at the time that this was a diplomatic assignment<\/a>: a two-pronged approach to build diplomatic ties with these countries and to oversee investment and implementation of foreign aid to these countries to address infrastructure, grow business, and strengthen civil society.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n