Harris blames Republicans for border crisis: 'Unwillingness to engage in any meaningful reform'
Harris was tapped by President Biden to address the root causes of the border crisis in 2021
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Vice President Kamala Harris blamed Republicans for the border crisis during an interview with NPR on Monday and said they were unwilling to engage on the issue.
"And sadly, what we have seen in particular, I am sad to say, from Republicans in Congress is an unwillingness to engage in any meaningful reform that could actually fix a lot of what we are witnessing," Harris told NPR.
Harris, who was tapped by President Biden to address the root causes of the border crisis and effectively became the "border czar" in 2021, told NPR that the White House plans to increase technology and provide more agents to help at the southern border.
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"I think that there is so much that needs to happen to address the issue," she told the outlet before adding, "Reform of our immigration system can only happen through Congress in terms of the passage of an immigration bill that allows for a legal pathway to citizenship and a legal presence in the country."
Vice President Kamala Harris hasn't visited the southern border since June 2021 despite leading the effort to address the migrant surge. (SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Harris told NBC's "Meet the Press" in September that the border is secure.
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"The border is secure, but we also have a broken immigration system, in particular, over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed," she told NBC's Chuck Todd.
Todd asked if she was confident that the border is secure as millions of people were set to cross into the country illegally for the first time ever.
"We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration," Harris replied. "But there are still a lot of problems that we are trying to fix given the deterioration that happened over the last four years. We also have to put into place a law and a plan for a pathway for citizenship for the millions of people who are here and are prepared to do what is legally required to gain citizenship."
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President Biden speaks during a news conference on the final day of the NATO summit in Madrid, June 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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The Supreme Court temporarily blocked an order that would lift Title 42's restrictions that allowed border officials to deter migrants throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The order was set to expire on Wednesday.
Nineteen states asked the court to keep Title 42 in place as immigration is expected to surge when the measure expires.
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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the DNC Women's Leadership Forum, Sept. 30, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre said she was unable to lay out what Harris' work on the border crisis looks like during a press briefing on Monday.
"I don’t have anything to lay out specifically on what that work looks like," she said in response to a question about the vice president's specific role.