On Wednesday (March 24), U.S. President Joe Biden officially appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to be in charge of dealing with the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
U.S. media Axios reported that just as President Obama asked Biden to take charge of fixing the U.S. economy after taking office in 2009, Biden appointed his vice president to take charge of addressing issues that could threaten the successful construction of the new administration. Harris will lead efforts related to Mexico and the countries of the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) to limit the unprecedented surge of illegal immigrant children and migrant families arriving at the border since 2019.
Senior White House administration officials told reporters on a conference call, “Starting today, the countries of the Northern Triangle and Mexico will know that there is a senior official dedicated to this effort. It’s very clear that this is an important mission.”
The conference call took place before a White House event attended by Biden, Harris, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. At the White House event, Biden announced that Harris will lead the response to the border crisis.
“When she speaks, she speaks for me,” Biden said.
The Associated Press noted that the Biden Administration wants to show that he is starting to take the border situation seriously after facing harsh criticism from Republicans over a surge in the number of illegal immigrants that has led to a growing humanitarian situation at the U.S.-Mexico border since he took office in January.
In response, Biden teased that he has “a tough job” for Harris.
“Needless to say, it’s not an easy job,” Harris said of her new assignment, “but it’s important work.”
On the same day, the White House also scheduled a trip to South Texas for senior aides and members of Congress to illustrate the breadth of the administration’s efforts to get the border issue under control.
Republicans said Biden should be censured for refusing to use the Trump-era policy of deporting illegal immigrants, and that Biden’s press department’s use of more lenient language on the issue was to blame for the crisis.
“President Biden had said during the transition that he would let the vice president help with whatever the most urgent developments were,” one of the three officials who attended the White House briefing told reporters, “and today, he will be turning to the vice president for help.”
Axios reported that according to the public meeting, the White House’s first goal will be to stop the flow of illegal immigrants to the United States.
In the broader context, Harris will also work to build a strategic partnership with Central American countries “based on respect and shared values,” another senior White House official noted at the meeting. This will be done on the premise that “these countries are our friends and neighbors. They are members of our common community in the Americas and the Western Hemisphere.
Harris spoke Wednesday morning with Ricardo Zúñiga, the State Department’s special envoy for the Northern Triangle, the report noted.
Zúñiga and other senior border officials had earlier left Mexico and were scheduled to travel to Guatemala to address issues on the ground where migrants originate. These include the lax government response to the coronavirus pandemic, rampant crime and the problems left in the region after two hurricanes hit.
The Biden administration has discussed increasing aid to address some of these underlying problems.
“The people of the Northern Triangle certainly deserve freedom and opportunity and the ability to be protected within the Northern Triangle,” a White House official said, “and they don’t have to come to the United States for freedom and opportunity, and that’s what Harris will be working on.”
The White House noted that the U.S. side is focused on addressing a number of local issues, including improving local corruption and the local economy.
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