President Biden did not assign her the job title of "border czar" or the responsibility of overseeing the enforcement policies at the U.S.-Mexico border, as the Trump campaign suggested on Tuesday in its first ad against her. Early in the administration, Ms. Harris was given a role that came to be defined as a combination of chief fund-raiser and conduit between business leaders and the economies of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Her attempt to convince companies across the world to invest in Central America and create jobs for would-be migrants had some success, according to immigration experts and current and former government officials.
But those successes only underlined the scale of the gulf in economic opportunity between the United States and Central America, and how policies to narrow that gulf could take years or even generations to show results.It's quite revealing watching Harris critics become apoplectic when confronted with the long-documented truth about what Biden tasked his VP with undertaking as it regarded unregulated migration during the height of the covid crisis. All of this was set out in the official white papers released by the Government in 2021 outlining both the long term goal of the efforts along with specific targets and policies which would give potential migrants more opportunities for economic advancement by staying in their own countries for the jobs created there through the work of Harris and others.
Rather than develop ways to turn away or detain migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, Ms. Harris's work included encouraging a Japan-based auto parts plant, Yazaki, to build a $10 million plant in a western Guatemalan region that sees high rates of migration and pushing a Swiss-based coffee company to increase procurement by more than $100 million in a region rich with coffee beans.
She convened leaders from dozens of companies, helping to raise more than $5 billion in private and public funds.
"Not a huge amount, but it ain't chicken feed and that links to jobs," said Mark Schneider, who worked with Latin American and Caribbean nations as a senior official at the United States Agency for International Development during the Clinton administration.
Jonathan Fantini-Porter, the chief executive of the Partnership for Central America, the public-private partnership Ms. Harris helped lead, said the money had led to 30,000 jobs, with another 60,000 on the way as factories are constructed.
Ricardo Ziga, who served as State Department's special envoy for Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, said Ms. Harris was essential in bringing together Latin American and American business leaders to drive investment in Central America.
Less than a week into her role, Mr. Ziga recalled, Ms. Harris sat with members of the national security team and economists from the Treasury Department. After a round of introductions, she quickly got into probing the personalities of the Latin American leaders with whom she would be interacting.
Mr. Ziga said he later watched her put the information she had collected into practice. She also pushed Central American governments to work with the United States to create a program where refugees could apply for protection within the region.
Time to update the talking points: Border conditions keep improvingPS: The most important factors lowering the numbers of migrants showing up on our border are these:
"We also have an illegal immigration crisis, and it's taking place right now," Trump said, adding, "The greatest invasion in history is taking place right here in our country. ... They're coming at levels that we've never seen before. It is an invasion indeed, and this administration does absolutely nothing to stop them."
Republican voters have heard this message so many times, they assume it's true, though reality tells a different story. In fact, as a CNN fact-check piece noted soon after, "Trump's claim that the Biden administration is doing nothing' is incorrect. Illegal crossings at the US border dropped in June and the Biden administration has imposed significant restrictions on asylum along with other measures to curb illegal immigration."
"July is on track to see the fifth consecutive monthly drop in migrant apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border and the lowest level in illegal immigration there since the fall of 2020, during the Trump administration, the internal Department of Homeland Security figures show."
To help drive the point home, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut added via social media that border crossings are now even lower "than in Trump's last non-pandemic summer."
To be sure, conditions might yet change again, and there are a variety of factors that have contributed to the improved numbers. The bottom line, however, remains the same: To believe that "the greatest invasion in history" is underway at the U.S./Mexico border is to believe stale and discredited nonsense.
Steve Benen
Anyone who cares about border security should support a presidential candidate with (ahem) good diplomatic relationships.
The biggest factors, though, appear to be measures not from the United States directly but from our allies. Most significantly: Mexico.
Most migrants crossing illegally from Mexico into the United States are not Mexican nationals. They're citizens of other countries, such as Guatemala and Ecuador, who transit through our southern neighbor. In early December, Mexico's immigration agency ran out of funds to continue its migrant deportations and transfers. Not coincidentally, that is when unlawful crossings from Mexico into the United States peaked.
But by the end of the month, after negotiations with Biden and his top aides, the Mexican president committed to providing more funding and military resources to address irregular migration.
"It's mostly about Mexico's interdiction efforts, especially the ongoing efforts to stop migrants from getting to the U.S.-Mexico border," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council. "That came after negotiations with the Biden administration."
U.S. leadership and Biden's relationship with key allies have encouraged other countries to share more of the global burden of mass migration. "I cannot overstate the importance of these new labor pathways abroad," a Homeland Security official told me. "Economic opportunity is an incredibly significant driver of migration patterns, including to the United States."
#5 I laugh at this, Trump and Obama had the same numbers.
Are actually saying Obama didn't have diplomatic chops. I laugh this suggestion.
Biden/Harris destroyed the border with 96 EOs at the beginning of Biden's term.
Lumpers cheered, Lumpers claimed the border was secure and safe.
NOW NOW that the reality has caught up to the policy. Oh it's Republicans fault, no it isn't its Biden/Harris policies that got us here.
www.cnn.com
If Biden did nothing it would have turned out better for Americans.
We should own it, and try to change it before the election. BUT no, you Lumpers trying to GASLIGHT Americans isn't going to end well for us.
And the gaslighting continues ...
#3 | POSTED BY BELLRINGER
Perhaps you ought to consider your diet.
"I'm an open borders, liberal!"
#9 | POSTED BY ---------
You need a new username.
This one is spent.
I've read the transcript of what he announced to the public. As a team the two of them destroyed the border. We all witnessed it even though the MSM did everything it could to minimize reporting on it.
Then how are crossings today at their lowest total since before Trump left office if Biden and Harris "destroyed" the border?
How are today's numbers as low as they are?
I know the answers, but you'll just deny them like everything else positive that's happened under your ignorant nose and unseeing eyes.
Harris and Biden engaged other countries where migrants must travel through to step up interdiction in their own nations, keeping many migrants from reaching America.
And encouraging multinational businesses to build plants and factories in Central American countries hasn't hurt either.
If this is "destruction" we need more of it to continue, but make no mistake that the lower numbers reaching our borders would not have happened unilaterally like Trump keeps insisting. Having the cooperation of allies makes a huge difference and that cooperation was engendered on purpose by Biden's migration policies outlined here yet again for those who've haven't informed their opinions on this topic with the truth.
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