Vice President Kamala Harris, who was tasked with overseeing immigration policy for an administration that saw record increases in illegal border crossings, now says she would put her record on the issue “up against anyone.”
During a Univision town hall event in Nevada on Thursday night, Harris was asked about how her immigration policy would differ from President Biden’s.
She touted her past experience as a prosecutor and said, “I would put my record up against anyone in terms of the work I’ve always done and will always do to ensure we have a secure border.”
Soon after taking office, Biden tasked Harris with addressing illegal immigration as a primary piece of her vice-presidential portfolio. Harris, however, refused to reform, or even discuss, the lax enforcement policies ushered in by Biden’s day-one executive orders, insisting instead that she was focused on addressing the “root causes” of immigration — namely by doling out economic aid to Central and South American nations.
Several times this week alone Harris has criticized Trump for lobbying Republican lawmakers against passing the border deal. However, Republicans who opposed the bill had argued that Biden could instead restore order at the border by reviving the Trump-era policies he dismantled through executive order.
Biden moved in that direction in June, issuing an order that restricted asylum access when official border crossings hit 2,500 per day. In order for the limitations to be lifted, daily numbers had to average below 1,500 per day for seven consecutive days. Biden then unveiled new rules last week lowering the threshold to 1,500 daily encounters or less for nearly a month before the restrictions can be lifted.
The vice president on Thursday also took a question from a woman who cried as she spoke about her mother who died six weeks ago without ever receiving legal status in the U.S. “My question for you is, what are your plans to support that subgroup of immigrants who have been here their whole lives, or most of them, and have to live and die in the shadows?” the woman, Ivett Castillo, asked.
Harris called the immigration system “broken” and said that a bill proposed by the Biden-Harris administration would have created an earned pathway to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants. She then again turned the topic to the border and blamed Trump for his role in tanking the bipartisan immigration bill.
The Democratic presidential nominee has struggled to move away from the administration’s abysmal record on the border. She visited the U.S.-Mexico border last month as part of her efforts to rewrite her image on the issue.
She faced tough questions about her role in the border crisis during an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker earlier this week, who noted that the number of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. had “quadrupled” during the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration compared to the last year of the Trump administration.
“Was it a mistake to loosen the immigration policies as much as you did?” Whitaker asked.
“It’s a long-standing problem, and solutions are at hand,” Harris said. “And from Day One, literally, we have been offering solutions.”
Appearing on The View on Monday, Harris was asked what, if anything, she would have done differently from President Biden over the past four years.
“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris answered. “I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.”
Trump is set to participate in his own Univision town hall on October 16.