Toxic workplace, plagiarism, border crisis: 5 Kamala Harris controversies since 2020

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Thursday, August 15, 2024

'Border Czar'

An illegal migrant man crosses through the banks of the Rio Grande to be processed by the Border Patrol El Paso Sector, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on May 10, 2023. | HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Harris has garnered a lot of criticism over the administration's handling of the influx of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S. southern border, with many blaming her and the Biden administration for the instability found in the region.

In March 2021, President Joe Biden selected Harris to oversee the response to the influx of immigration, specifically to "lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle [El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras] and the countries that ... are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border."

But as the border crisis has worsened over the years with a record flow of illegal immigration, the Republicans and former President Donald Trump have made Harris' responsibilities into a major campaign talking point, referring to her as the "Border Czar."

In September 2022, Harris garnered flack for claiming that the southern border was "secure" and that the real issue was "a broken immigration system, in particular over the last four years before we came in."

Mark Morgan, the former chief operating officer and acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the Trump administration, denounced Harris' comment as "absolutely a lie."

"They took the most secure border in our lifetime and they unsecured it," Morgon said, as reported by The National Desk in 2022. "We have this administration — now including the vice president of the United States — lying to the American people."

The Harris campaign recently unveiled a campaign ad titled "Tougher," which champions her efforts at border security, both before and during her time as vice president.

"Kamala Harris has spent decades fighting violent crime. As a border state prosecutor, she took on drug cartels and jailed gang members for smuggling weapons and drugs across the border," stated the ad. "As vice president, she backed the toughest border control bill in decades. And as president, she will hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking."