During Vice President Kamala Harris’ first and only visit to the US-Mexico border, federal agents on the front lines were instructed to thoroughly sanitize the area to hide the true severity of the crisis from cameras, sources told The Washington Post, even going so far as to braid the hair of unaccompanied minors.
Harris, whose first big task as the nation’s number two official was to manage the flow of migrants across the southern border, headed to the border near El Paso, Texas, on June 25, 2021, after coming under pressure from Republicans over her response to the crisis.
A Border Patrol source said agents there had been instructed to move migrants out of detention facilities to put on a “show” for Harris.
“They booked a whole bunch of hotels and we spent hours moving the bodies out. We had to braid the hair of the children who were left behind,” one official said, adding: “We joked that the buildings were more secure than the entire border.”
“She really had no interest in seeing anything. She was in a hurry,” said a former government official who accompanied her on the trip.
Harris, who critics have dubbed President Biden’s “border czar,” spent the day touring migrant processing centers and ports of entry with Democratic lawmakers and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
While at the processing center, Harris met with some of the remaining migrant children, who painted pictures for her.
But nothing else happened, the people said.
“They removed all the aliens to make it look better,” the second agent said.
“They cleared the streets of all the people they released who were staying on the streets downtown,” a third agent said.
Of course, there were a lot of migrants in the area at the time: In June 2021 alone, Border Patrol intercepted 21,500 people crossing the border illegally in the El Paso sector.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Harris’ record on immigration policy has come under renewed scrutiny after she appeared to all but secure the Democratic presidential nomination just two days after President Biden dropped out of the race.
More than eight million migrants have crossed the border illegally since Harris gave her famous “don’t come” speech, urging families not to make the dangerous journey to the United States.
Former President Donald Trump, in a call with reporters on Tuesday, slammed Harris’ record at the border and her visit to El Paso.
“She made one visit to the border, far from the epicenter of the aggression. You can’t even call it a visit,” he said.
“She went to a place where there were no problems and she only stayed there for a short period of time, which means she has never been to the border as we know it.”
Other Republican leaders have also slammed Harris’ record on the border.
“Kamala Harris is responsible for Joe Biden’s open border policy. By any measure, Harris has failed to secure the border and has prioritized the failed open border policies of far-left Democrats and the needs of illegal immigrants over the safety of the American people,” House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Harris, who serves in the Biden administration and is tasked with tackling the “root causes of migration” in Central America, was initially pressured to visit the southern border to inspect the record influx of migrants.
Harris initially downplayed the visit, then got on the defensive when NBC host Lester Holt pressed her about it in early June 2021.
“At some point we’re going to the border,” Harris said. He told Holt on NBC’s “Today” show. In Guatemala.
“We’ve been to the border. So, in terms of all this border issue, we’ve been to the border,” Harris said, to which Holt responded, “You’ve never been to the border.”
Harris responded with his trademark chuckle: “I’ve never been to Europe, so I don’t understand what you’re talking about. I’m not minimizing the importance.”
Harris eventually caved in to pressure and headed to El Paso about two weeks later.
