First appearance on FOXRepublicans on the House Oversight Committee are investigating Vice President Kamala Harris’ role in responding to the crisis on the southern border and are demanding that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) turn over all internal communications with Harris’ office regarding illegal immigration.
“The large amount of illegal immigration under the Biden-Harris Administration has contributed to the murder, sexual assault, and serious injury of numerous Americans at the hands of illegal immigrants,” Chairman James Comer said in the letter to Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller, first obtained by Fox News Digital.
“The committee is requesting documents and communications to understand Vice President Harris’ role in the worst border crisis in American history.”
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As the number of migrants at the southern border began to surge in 2021, President Biden told reporters that Harris was now tasked with tackling the root causes his administration believes are driving migrants north, including climate change, poverty and violence.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has been dubbed the “border czar” by Republicans and some in the media. (Lee Vogel/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“She has about five other major issues on her plate, but I’ve asked the vice president today to lead our efforts with Mexico, the Northern Triangle and donor countries who are going to need our assistance to stem the flow of many people, stem the migration to our southern border,” he said.
Harris was soon criticized by the media and the Republican Party. “Emperor of the Borders” Though the White House rejected the role, it has stuck with her ever since, and she, along with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, has become a symbol of the crisis.
Now that she’s the Democratic nominee for president in 2024, Republicans are zeroing in on her response to the border crisis that has seen a record number of crashes on the southern border, numbers that Republicans say are a direct result of the Trump-era rollback of border security and implementation of so-called “open borders” policies.
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“We’re not going to be able to do anything to protect our national security,” Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said during a hearing in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The letter to Miller called Harris’ record “abysmal” and pointed to her previous comments suggesting an overhaul of immigration enforcement and her history of calling for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
“The Committee wishes to understand whether Vice President Harris has done ‘anything’ to address the worst border crisis in U.S. history,” the letter said.
The committee is seeking “all documents and communications between U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Office of the Vice President regarding the southwest border and illegal immigration.”
CBP and Harris’ office did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
The Biden administration has disputed that notion, pointing to a sharp decline in the number of applications since President Biden signed an executive order in June placing limits on asylum applications.
The White House noted that encounters have fallen by more than 50%, deportations have increased by more than 70%, and more than 50,000 people have been returned to more than 100 countries. Meanwhile, Harris’ root cause efforts, a project to mobilize private investment in the region through a call to action, have raised more than $5.2 billion from more than 50 companies and organizations since May 2021. Encounters in the three countries have fallen from more than 700,000 in FY21 to more than 330,000 so far this year, but it’s not clear how much of that is related to Harris’ efforts.
The administration has accused Republicans of not providing additional funding and immigration reform, a feud that has spilled over into the election campaign, with the Trump and Harris campaigns at odds over the border.
Harris criticized former President Trump at a rally in Atlanta last week, saying, ” Securing the borderBut he hasn’t actually acted on it.”
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She accused the former president of “destroying a bipartisan agreement because he thought it would help him win the election” and vowed that “as president, I will reinstate the border security bill that Donald Trump killed.”
Days later, Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, attacked Harris during a visit to the border.
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“You won’t believe how bad the Kamala Harris administration’s policies have been on the southern border until you see it for yourself.” Vance says Cochise County, Arizona.
