Migrant czar Kamala Harris heads to soiree instead of border as Title 42 lifts
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Atlanta on Friday for a Democratic Party “spring soiree” — instead of visiting the US-Mexico border in her role as migration czar as thousands of people illegally enter America after the lifting of the Title 42 COVID-19 expulsion policy.
Harris will depart Washington around noon and appear mid-afternoon at a Democratic National Committee finance event before being the guest of honor at the Democratic Party of Georgia’s Spring Soiree.
The optics of Harris attending political events instead of tending to the border crisis drew fresh condemnation from Republicans, who have accused her of not doing enough on border issues since President Biden tapped her in March 2021 to lead US efforts to reduce illegal immigration.
“Title 42 ended last night at midnight. Since then, absolute chaos has erupted at the southern border,” tweeted Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.). “Yet Joe Biden and Border Czar Kamala Harris are nowhere to be found.”
The vice president’s office did not share with The Post any specific plans for Harris to address the border rush in the coming days — with a Homeland Security intelligence analysis reported by the New York Times saying 660,000 migrants from around the world may be waiting in Mexico to cross into the US.
A White House official, however, emailed The Post a lengthy defense of the vice president.
Harris “has been engaged and regularly briefed on preparations for the end of public health emergency measures — including Title 42 — while continuing to make progress addressing the root causes of migration from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador,” the official said.
The Biden administration says illegal border crossers will be presumed ineligible for asylum and expelled after Title 42 expired at 11:59 p.m. Thursday — reflecting a tougher policy than during Biden’s first two years in office.
The administration also planned to temporarily release migrants into the US if detention capacity runs out, but that idea was blocked Thursday by a federal judge in Florida.
Two former White House officials told Reuters in March that Biden was frustrated with Harris’ performance, including her aversion to risky assignments and failure to rise “to the occasion.”
Harris took heat throughout her vice presidency for appearing reluctant to embrace her assignment to reduce illegal immigration by addressing the “root causes” in other countries.
What is Title 42 and what does its end mean for US border immigration?
What is Title 42?
Title 42 is a federal health measure enforced by the US Border Patrol. It allows the agency to kick certain migrants out of the US and return them to Mexico. This includes asylum seekers, who under international law have the legal right to make an asylum claim in America.
Currently, migrants who cross the border illegally and who are from Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua or Venezuela are subject to Title 42 and could be sent to Mexico.
How did Title 42 start?
President Donald Trump invoked the law in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue the policy. The Trump administration made the case that keeping migrants out of the country would slow down the spread of infections and maintain the safety of federal agents encountering migrants.
What has happened with Title 42 under Biden?
When President Biden took over, he continued to enforce Title 42 with one important change from his predecessor. Biden said Border Patrol agents were only allowed to expel migrants from certain countries under his direction. That meant migrants seeking asylum from countries like Cuba and Venezuela could still seek asylum if they arrived at the border and stay in the US while their cases were decided in court — unless they had a criminal record.
What is happening with Title 42 now?
Title 42 is supposed to be a health policy, not an immigration law. It will end at 11:59 p.m. May 11, when the Biden administration ends all COVID-19-related policies.
Why is it controversial?
Many have called for the policy’s end, saying it’s illegal and that international law guarantees people the right to seek asylum.
Others, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, warn that the southern border could see up to 13,000 migrants per day crossing with the intention to stay in the country when the measure ends.
What would the end of Title 42 mean for immigration into the US?
It’s unclear exactly how many people have been expelled under Title 42 because there have been scores of people who have attempted to enter the country numerous times and been rejected again and again, but the US Border Patrol said it made an all-time high of more than 2.3 million arrests at the border in the last fiscal year. Forty percent of people who were expelled from the country were ejected under the rules of Title 42.
Her defenders, however, note the veep organized pledges of corporate investment in Central America as well as the fact that the number of migrants from the so-called Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) dropped, despite being offset by increases from elsewhere.
“She has led an effort with the private sector to generate more than $4.2 billion in investments in the region to give people economic opportunity at home – which makes them less inclined to migrate,” the White House official emailed The Post.
“These investments are creating jobs, have connected more than 4 million people to the internet, and brought more than 1 million people into the formal financial system. Under the Vice President’s leadership, the Biden-Harris Administration continues to implement the Root Causes Strategy.”
The official added, “Through this strategy, we will increase U.S. foreign assistance to the region by providing $4 billion over four years. Thus far, the efforts under this strategy have helped create and sustain more than 90,000 jobs; improved food security for more than 275,000 people, and reached more than 465,000 youth through support for primary and secondary education in these three countries.”
The White House aide added, “we are also making progress to combat corruption, reduce violence and empower women.”
Harris traveled in June 2021 to Guatemala and Mexico, but the mission was overshadowed by her struggle to explain her reluctance to visit the US-Mexico border. She visited Honduras last year.
The VP ultimately did visit El Paso, Texas, weeks later, but only after former President Donald Trump booked a visit to the border region first.
There were nearly 2.4 million arrests for illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in fiscal 2022, which ended Sept. 30 — up from an elevated 1.7 million in fiscal 2021, fewer than 500,000 in fiscal 2020, and nearly 1 million in fiscal 2019.
Those figures do not include migrants who evaded arrest, known in Border Patrol parlance as “gotaways.”
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