VP Harris: Biden admin. will 'manage' southern border 'influx'

By 
 December 20, 2022

Vice President Kamala Harris claims that the Biden administration is "going to do everything" it can to "manage what might be an influx" of illegal immigration at the southern border. 

Harris made these remarks in an interview that she did with NPR White House Correspondent Asma Khalid.

Context

The U.S.-Mexico border is currently making news headlines due to concerns about an imminent, large-scale surge of illegal immigration.

After revoking the immigration policies of former President Donald Trump, Biden has allowed illegal immigration to take place at record-high levels. One policy, however, that has somewhat stemmed the flow is Title 42.

Title 42 is a Trump-era emergency policy that was enacted in response to the COVID pandemic. It has allowed the federal government to limit the number of asylum seekers.

The reason that a southern border surge is now expected is that Title 42 is set to expire on Wednesday.

Estimates suggest that this may bring as many as 50,000 immigrants to the southern border and that U.S. Border Patrol could see as many as 18,000 border crossings per day.

Harris responds

NPR's Khalid recently asked Harris if there is anything she could do to address the expected surge.

"Well, listen, I think that it is right to say that we need leadership on this issue, in particular from Congress," Harris began, responding to a statement from California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who recently suggested that the Biden administration's southern border approach is not "working."

Harris continued:

Now, the president and I and our administration, we are going to do everything that’s within our ability as the executive branch and that means, again, putting more agents on the border as appropriate so that we can manage what might be an influx. It is about increasing the work that we have been increasing around arresting human smugglers.

Harris finished up her response by essentially claiming that, to really address the anticipated surge, the Biden administration just needs to keep doing what it is already doing.

The vice president said:

It is about increasing the work that we have been increasing around arresting human smugglers. And it is the work that we have been doing that has been about bringing the partners and the allies together on an international level, understanding that we are seeing these migration trends around the globe. And in particular, the work that we have done that has been about addressing the root causes of migration from, for example, the northern part of Central America, actually is having an impact.

SCOTUS to the rescue

Suffice it to say that many are not convinced by Harris's statement here. It appears, though, that the Biden administration has just been saved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Fox News reports that the justices on Monday temporarily blocked Title 42 from coming to an end.

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