By DAN MERICA, NICHOLAS RICCARDI and CHRIS MEGERIAN Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden, watching tens of hundreds of migrants from Central America attain the U.S.-Mexico border just some months into his administration, tapped his second-in-command to assist tackle the inflow — a call that has uncovered Vice President Kamala Harris to one in all her largest political liabilities.
In grappling with migration, Harris proceeded cautiously. She targeted her time and status on boosting non-public funding in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the so-called Northern Triangle; her purpose was to assist create jobs to bolster economies and dissuade migrants from making the perilous journey to the USA.
It was a decidedly long-term — and restricted — method to a humanitarian disaster, and it has allowed Republicans to tie her to the broader battle over the border. Whereas migration from the Northern Triangle ebbed, it surged from different nations, sparking an emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border, one which Republicans have aggressively sought to take advantage of at Harris’ expense.
A evaluate of Harris’ work on immigration reveals a report that’s extra nuanced than the one offered by her critics or allies. It additionally gives insights into how Harris — who took over because the Democratic standard-bearer when Biden dropped out of the presidential race final month — would possibly sort out one of many nation’s most vexing considerations.
Harris was by no means the “border czar,” or put in command of border safety or halting unlawful border crossings, as former President Donald Trump, Republicans and even the occasional media outlet have claimed. As an alternative, she was tasked in March 2021 with tackling the “root causes” of migration from the Northern Triangle and pushing its leaders — together with Mexico’s — to implement immigration legal guidelines, administration officers mentioned.
Harris’ backers say she demonstrated management by leveraging her stature to win investments which may curb migration years down the street.
“She felt — and I feel she was proper — that what she may do essentially the most was assist principally lead the trouble to attract in funding, utilizing the arrogance {that a} relationship with the White Home would give to buyers,” mentioned Ricardo Zúniga, a former State Division official who specialised within the Northern Triangle and who traveled with Harris to the area.
Critics contend that she may have accomplished way more however selected a much less dangerous path, making certain the issue solely worsened.
“She was like, ‘nope, I’m simply root causes,’’” mentioned Mark Krikorian, government director of the Middle for Immigration Research, which advocates for much less immigration. “Even when it labored, it’s the type of factor that takes generations, not one time period.”
He additionally mentioned there was no proof that Harris pushed Mexico and the Northern Triangle nations to implement immigration legal guidelines.
Harris has defended her work, and her marketing campaign started working a tv advert Friday that mentioned Harris as president would “rent hundreds extra border brokers and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking.” Democrats have additionally blasted Trump for serving to tank a bipartisan immigration invoice earlier this yr that may have elevated funding for border safety, together with the hiring of recent Customs and Border Safety personnel.
Trump “has been speaking a giant sport on securing the border, however he doesn’t stroll the stroll,” the vp said last month in Atlanta. Later, she added, “Donald Trump doesn’t care about border safety. He solely cares about himself.”
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Immigration turns into a giant political situation
Immigration has lengthy been a problem that motivates Trump and his base of supporters, and polls present it’s among the many most essential points on the minds of voters. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump mentioned he would construct a wall alongside the border between the USA and Mexico and get Mexico to pay for it. Trump was not capable of full the venture, and Mexico didn’t fund the a part of the barrier that was constructed. The previous president additionally used explosive language to explain immigrants, launching his marketing campaign by suggesting Mexico was sending its “rapists” and criminals to the USA.
Whereas in workplace, Trump sought to tightly limit asylum, which was challenged within the courts. This time round, Trump has promised to supervise a “mass deportation” of migrants who’ve dedicated crimes in the USA.
Migration numbers have spiked and dropped throughout each presidencies. Border Patrol arrests on the southern border fell in Trump’s first yr in workplace, then shot again up his subsequent two, rising to greater than 850,000 in 2019. The numbers plunged in 2020 through the coronavirus pandemic earlier than rising even larger throughout Biden’s presidency, reaching a peak of greater than 250,000 encounters in December 2023, earlier than falling beneath 84,000 in June of 2024, federal statistics present.
When Biden took workplace, he reversed dozens of Trump’s strikes on immigration at the same time as apprehension numbers started to rise.
Harris was put in a ‘tough spot’
Harris received the migration assignment when border crossings had been rising, garnering appreciable consideration and resulting in bipartisan requires motion.
Chris Newman, an immigration rights advocate in Los Angeles, mentioned Harris was put in a tough spot.
“She was tasked with creating a long-term coverage framework quite than making a short-term political efficiency venture,” mentioned Newman, the authorized director of the Nationwide Day Laborer Organizing Community.
Biden and Harris had taken workplace solely two months earlier than, and Harris was below stress to construct her coverage portfolio. When he was vp, Biden had taken on an analogous position on immigration. In 2021, although, Harris was coping with an particularly difficult scenario given the dearth of governing companions within the area. El Salvador’s new president, Nayib Bukele, had a fraught relationship with the administration because of human rights questions raised by his crackdown on crime in his nation. The person who was then president of Honduras has since been convicted of drug trafficking.
The complications for Harris started nearly instantly, validating the considerations of some on her group that it was a no-win task.
Harris traveled to Mexico and Guatemala in June 2021, the place she defended the fact she had not been to the U.S.-Mexico border throughout an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt by saying she hadn’t “been to Europe. And I imply, I don’t … perceive the purpose that you just’re making.”
She additionally drew criticism on that journey for warning migrants bluntly: “Don’t come” to the U.S.
Harris determined to deal with bringing non-public funding to the area, tapping right into a community of enterprise and nonprofit executives and utilizing the status of the White Home to sign the Biden administration was backing this effort.
The work linked multinational corporations — like Visa, Nestle and Meta — with smaller nonprofits and Latin American companies, all of which pledged to extend their investments or bolster their work with at-risk communities.
Centered on non-public funding
The Related Press contacted all thenearly two dozen companiesthe White House touted as contributors within the outreach effort. Some, like AgroAmerica, a sustainable meals company, that pledged to take a position greater than $100 million in six new tasks, reported their work had begun they usually had been on observe to fulfill their funding targets. Others, together with Columbia Sportswear Firm, mentioned they might seemingly surpass their pledges.
Most corporations, nevertheless, both declined to remark or didn’t reply when requested about their efforts.
The vp’s workplace has mentioned Harris’ efforts have generated greater than $5.2 billion in funding guarantees. In an illustration of how lengthy it takes the guarantees to translate into concrete spending, the State Division reported that corporations have plowed nearly $1.3 billion in the region as of June 2024, the majority of it in Guatemala and Honduras.
“We’re on observe to exceed our commitments,” Peter Bragdon, a prime government at Columbia Sportswear Firm, mentioned of their promise to buy as much as $200 million in merchandise from the area. That pledge would create almost 7,000 jobs over 5 years, the corporate mentioned. The manager referred to as Harris’ efforts a “work in progress” however “a wise method.”
Katie Tobin, who labored as the highest migration adviser on the Nationwide Safety Council for 3 years, credited Harris’ focus with spurring funding in lowering these numbers, arguing that Harris “was capable of leverage her credibility” and the ability of the White Home to influence corporations to spend money on “a dangerous funding setting.”
“That was very a lot Kamala Harris,” she added. “I’ve by no means seen one thing like that accomplished earlier than on this area and it made an actual impression.”
Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, a pointy critic of Harris, mentioned the vp and White Home had been taking credit score for investments that may have been made anyway.
The businesses are “not doing it as a result of somebody requested them to,” mentioned Scott, who co-founded a significant medical firm. “They’re doing it as a result of it makes financial sense.”
Addressed corruption
Harris additionally sought to handle endemic corruption that has fueled migration from Central America. Earlier than her 2021 journey to Guatemala, Harris met with a bunch of exiled Guatemalan prosecutors and judges in Washington.
Amongst them was Thelma Aldana, a former chief prosecutor who fled her nation after what she mentioned had been politically motivated corruption prices.
“I got here out of it satisfied that she has a real curiosity in seeing issues change in Central America,” Aldana mentioned.
The vp additionally deserves credit score for serving to cease Guatemala’s former president, Alejandro Giammattei, from overturning the 2023 election of his successor, Bernardo Arévalo, based on Luis Von Ahn, a U.S.-based know-how entrepreneur from Guatemala.
“Giammattei didn’t wish to go away energy, the administration of Kamala Harris got here and advised him ’cease (messing) round,’” mentioned Von Ahn, the founding father of the language app Duolingo. “That’s a giant assist to Guatemala. If a particularly corrupt president doesn’t wish to go away it’s horrible and (his exit) lets us be a greater nation.”
Verdict is out on Harris’ method
Whereas the Harris marketing campaign and White Home have pointed to statistics that present migration from Northern Triangle nations has dropped considerably since early 2021, there’s debate over what’s answerable for that drop.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., mentioned Harris and the administration deserve credit score for the discount as a result of their efforts “labored.”
Impartial analysts, nevertheless, mentioned they had been skeptical that Harris’ method was answerable for the dip. They mentioned the lower was seemingly pushed by regional components, together with the ascension of El Salvador’s new president and his aggressive drive to fight violent crime. His authorities reported a 70% drop in homicides in 2023.
Julia Gelatt, affiliate director of the Migration Coverage Institute in Washington, mentioned funding can take years to change migration patterns — if it ever does.
“Even an entire lot of financial growth doesn’t curb immigration in the way in which nations hope it’s going to,” Gelatt mentioned.
Riccardi reported from Denver. Related Press author Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala Metropolis contributed to this story.
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