Texas governor, Border Patrol Council say they've never heard from VP Harris: 'Abject failure'
'If we have a 9/11-style attack, it is on the hands of Kamala Harris,' Greg Abbott told Harris Faulkner
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and a top border patrol union representative took aim at VP Kamala Harris, calling her out for never contacting them to discuss the southern border.
"Everyone has seen that videotape where President Biden clearly assigned to Kamala Harris the responsibility to take care of the border," Abbott, a Republican, said on "Faulkner Focus", Monday.
But Abbott said Harris has reached out to him "zero times," despite him governing a border state that is "ground zero" for illegal crossings. Abbott said the Biden-Harris administration has failed the American people regardless of whether they call Harris the "border czar."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Regardless of whatever title they have, the president and the vice president have a primary duty. Their sacred duty is to protect the United States of America from terrorists," said Abbott.
His statement comes as the latest reports show 383 known terrorists have been apprehended at the border during the Biden administration. This number does not include got-aways.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We don't know how many hundreds or thousands of terrorists are in our country because the Biden-Harris administration did not secure the border," said Abbott.
"Kamala is now running to be the President of the United States. Their job is to guard our national security when it concerns regarding national security. Kamala Harris has been an abject failure and has endangered Americans. If we have a 9/11 style attack, it is on the hands of Kamala Harris."
Abbott added that Harris has a chance for "redemption" during her upcoming visit to Houston later this week.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"There is a bill filed by Ted Cruz in the United States Congress that is called Justice for Jocelyn [Nungaray] that would require the United States, for ICE to hold these people in detention and not let them loose."
Abbott said Harris should announce her support for the bill during her upcoming visit. The bill is named for a 12-year-old Texas girl who was raped and murdered last month, allegedly by two migrants.
Immigrants wait to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border from Mexico, with the U.S.-Mexico border barrier in the background, on August 6, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona. ((Photo by Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images))
National Border Patrol Council VP Jon Anfinsen said Harris, who is often referred to as the "border czar" and now running for president, hasn't interacted with their group.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We've never had any contact with her," he told host Dana Perino.
Anfinsen put the blame on the Biden administration for the influx of illegal crossings and "abuse" of the asylum system by ending policies put in place by the Trump administration.
"It doesn't make any sense. If the White House had literally just done nothing when Joe Biden's administration began, left in place the Trump policies, we wouldn't be sitting here. … They basically opened the door for the world to show up at the southwest border to enter illegally and to abuse the asylum system," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He added that Border Patrol is having issues with retention and recruitment.
"The entire agency's been demoralized because the administration has shown that they just don't care about the Border Patrol or its mission, because if they did, they wouldn't be doing what they've been doing the past few years," said Anfinsen on "America's Newsroom."
Anfinsen said he doubts Harris' VP pick will help her with voters on the border issue.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I don't know that there's anybody who's going to be, frankly, a good enough candidate to help her out, considering her stance on the border."
Biden tapped Harris to lead the administration’s effort to combat migration in March 2021, a response to critics who were already noting the increased flow of migrants just months into his presidency.
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at Westover High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on July 18, 2024. (ALLISON JOYCE/AFP via Getty Images)
According to a report from the Associated Press on the day of the announcement, Harris was tasked with overseeing diplomatic efforts in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Administration officials told AP that Harris would work to press those countries to better enforce immigration laws and secure their own borders while also being tasked with coming up with a long-term strategy to address the root causes of migration from the countries.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The vice president has agreed – among the multiple other things that I have her leading, and I appreciate it – agreed to lead our diplomatic effort to work with those nations to accept returnees and enhance migration enforcement at their borders," Biden said during the announcement.
Nevertheless, the share of attempted crossings by migrants from the Northern Triangle has dropped significantly since 2021. According to government statistics, migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador made up 41% of all Border Patrol apprehensions in 2021. That number dropped to 22% of crossings in fiscal 2023, the data shows.
Despite the decrease in Northern Triangle crossings, illegal crossings overall reached all-time highs in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with migrants making their way from all over the world to the U.S. border. Thousands of those migrants were coming from China, with government data showing more than 30,000 Chinese migrants were arrested illegally crossing the southern border in 2023.
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Fox News' Michael Lee contributed to this report.