Republicans criticized Kamala Harris for her failure to deal with the southern border crisis, but slammed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on nighttime television for sending migrants to sanctuary cities to ease stress on border communities.
Many of the lawmakers who have commented on the vice president’s comments represent counties in border states that are facing the brunt of the migration crisis.
Shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden appointed Harris as the person in his administration to deal with southern border issues, and she was quickly branded a “border zzarin,” but for those outside the White House.
But in nearly two years, Harris has only gone to the limit once, and has consistently said her role is to address the root causes in South and Central American countries that are driving people to leave their homes.
“Kamala, as our nation’s border czar, has offered no solutions,” wrote Arizona Representative Andy Biggs.
New Mexico Representative Vicky Hartzle tweeted, “Kamala Harris has been a border tsarina for 629 days and has not yet visited the border.”
“She does not participate in solutions.” She’s just upset that the crisis has been brought to her doorstep,” she added in response to the vice president’s comments about Governor Abbott.
Georgian Representative Jody Hice asked, “When was the last time Kamala addressed the national security crisis at the border? Wasn’t that her job?’
Harris used the national television platform Late Night to infiltrate Abbott’s “political theater” by relocating migrants from the border and dropping them off in a busload in front of their official residence in Washington DC
‘Talk about political theatre!’ said Vice President Kamala Harris, who slammed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s move to send in immigrants from Texas and propose them during her “Late Night” interview with host Seth Meyers, which aired Monday, Oct. 10 to leave their residence in DC
Republicans lashed out at Harris for her comments, claiming she offered no solutions to the crisis despite being called Biden’s “Grenzzar.”
New Mexico Representative Vicky Hartzler noted that Harris has been in her unofficial role for 629 days but will not “engage in resolutions.”
“We’re talking about people fleeing great harm,” Harris said when host Seth Meyers raised the issue.
“And they come here to seek refuge and — talk about political theatre!” she said. “I mean playing games with people’s lives, with their lives. You know, there were mothers with sleeping babies getting off those buses. And I just think it’s an absolute dereliction of duty when you see a problem,” she said.
She responded to a question from the host, a Saturday Night Live alum, who compared the move to “playing games” – but also called illegal immigration “a problem”.
“I don’t think playing with people’s lives is the solution to this problem. But given the record number of arrests at the border, that’s a problem,” Meyers said.
“I think we look to our leaders at times like this. What is the way forward?’
Arizona Representative Debbie Lesko tweeted in response to a clip of the comments, “Vice President Kamala Harris is the border tsarina, but she and the rest of the Biden administration have found ZERO solutions and only made the border crisis worse.”
Virginia Representative Ben Cline called the comments “ironic” and said Harris “helped” create the southern border crisis that she now blames Abbott for “handling”.
Rep. Cline said the “irony” was that Abbott bussed migrants to “solve a problem” that the vice president “helped create.”
Texas sent more than 100 migrants from Eagle Pass onto the street in front of the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, the compound where the Vice President’s official residence is located
»The so-called ‘solution’ of the ‘Border Czar’? Mass amnesty and open borders,” Georgia Representative Andrew Clyde tweeted.
“Kamala Harris isn’t interested in border security solutions – she’s just determined to make things worse.”
Abbott launched a plan in April in which he began busing migrants to DC, New York City and other Democratic enclaves.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis boarded the train and sent a plane carrying 50 migrants to the affluent Liberal island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.
Late Night host Seth Meyers called Abbott’s transports of migrants to Democratic enclaves “playing games with people’s lives,” but also called illegal immigration a “problem.”
Harris got hot last month when she said ‘we have a safe border’
Harris’ interview with Meyers was her second nightly appearance as vice president and her first on a television network as vice president.
In December, she appeared on Charlamagne Tha God’s Comedy Central show Tha God’s Honest Truth.
Harris, whom President Biden tasked to focus on the “root causes” of immigration, particularly from Northern Triangle nations, called for addressing broader immigration issues.
NBC reported last week that the government is considering a big immigration push after the midterm elections in hopes of responding to problems that have stalled for years.
Harris’ appearance on “Late Night” marked her first late night appearance as a VP
“If we agree that we need to deal with this, then as a leader, participate in a resolution,” Harris said, dismissing Abbott’s move. “When we first came into office, the first bill we proposed was a pathway to citizenship that was supposed to fix a broken immigration system that broke under the previous administration,” she said.
In a debate last week with Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke, Abbott touted his own Operation Lone Star, which relies on the Texas Department of Defense and public safety officials to provide border security.
“We shouldn’t have to put money into it because this is all because Joe Biden failed to fulfill the presidential duty of securing the border,” he said at the debate.
O’Rourke countered that “the money stays on your desk”.
Harris also spoke about other issues, including Biden’s decision to pardon people in federal prison for nonviolent marijuana crimes. “Nobody should go to jail for smoking weed, right?” said the former California prosecutor.
Abbott devastated New York Mayor Eric Adams when he was shipping migrants to New York this summer.
“Adams spoke about being a sanctuary city — welcoming illegal immigrants to the Big Apple with warm hospitality,” he wrote. “Talking is cheap. When pushed to fulfill such ill-considered guidelines, he wants to condemn anyone who pushes him to walk the path.’