When asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’ role as “border czar,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott bluntly said she has “failed miserably” in her job.
Abbott told CBS News on Sunday. They warn that a Harris presidency would only increase illegal immigration to the United States, the Lone Star State’s biggest problem.
“Whether she likes being called ‘border secretary’ or not, Kamala Harris was directly appointed by Joe Biden to be in charge of the border and illegal immigration into the United States, and she has failed miserably,” he said.
He also criticized Harris’ past comments, including when she said she wanted to decriminalize illegal border crossings, advocated for free health care for undocumented immigrants and criticized ICE.
He called Harris’s comments a “magnet for more illegal immigration.”
“And when it comes to Texas’ biggest issue, immigration, she’s been a total failure, probably even worse than Joe Biden,” he added.
President Joe Biden tapped Harris to address the causes of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border in March 2021. At the time, Biden said Harris would work to stem the rise in illegal immigration.
“Today, I’ve asked her, as vice president, to lead our efforts with Mexico, the Northern Triangle and donor countries who will need our help to stem the flow of so many people and stem migration to our southern border,” Biden said at the time.
Her role has become the center of Republican attacks as she runs for president.
Mr Abbott has previously targeted Ms Harris, including by dropping off busloads of migrants on her front lawn at the vice presidential residence at the Naval Observatory.
Harris, who won the nomination with the support of nearly every leading Democrat, famously visited Guatemala in June 2021 on her first international trip, where she told migrants “don’t come” to the United States.
This announcement followed a record number of illegal crossings, with eight million migrants crossing the southern border, as previously reported by The Washington Post.
Former President Donald Trump said in a recent conference call that Harris had slammed him for allowing “millions of illegal immigrants” into the U.S. and creating an accompanying wave of “immigrant crime.”
Trump’s vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, also visited the Arizona border on Thursday and focused on Harris and her role as “secretary for border affairs,” blaming her for record illegal immigration in recent years.
“What’s happening on the southern border is unbelievable, and it’s because Kamala Harris is refusing to do her job,” Vance said during a tour of a smuggling route in Cochise County, Arizona.
Harris made just one visit to the southern border, in El Paso, Texas, in June 2021, while serving as the White House immigration chief.
But a source who was there during the visit told The Post that Harris’s visit had been “rushed” and “handled neatly” at the southern border, with instructions given to staff to remove as many migrants as possible before the vice president’s arrival.
