In just a matter of hours, a Kamala Harris for President campaign has gone from a far-flung possibility to an all but certain likelihood. It puts the vice president in a tricky spot. She's got to run on President Biden's achievements while avoiding the more challenging aspects of his record. And Biden entrusted Harris with some of the most challenging parts of his portfolio, including voting rights,
the rollback of reproductive rights, and immigration. I said when we came and team got elected that the vice president was going to be the last person in room. She didn't realize that means she gets every assignment. That's President Biden in the state dining room in March 2021. That day, he announced that Harris would be responsible for trying to address the root causes of the crisis on the U.S. Southern border.
I've asked her the VP today because he's the most qualified person to do it to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that need help in stemming the movement of so many folks stemming the migration to our Southern border. Since then, Harris has struggled to find her footing on immigration. Early on, she faced criticism for having not visited the Southern border. Here she is with NBC's Lester Holt. We've been to the border. You haven't been to the border.
And I haven't been to Europe. And I don't understand the point that you're making. As Republicans like Texas Governor Greg Abbott started busing migrants to northern cities, the vice president's mansion in Washington, D.C. became a drop-off point. For the second time, in less than a week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent another busload of migrants to the residents of Vice President Kamala Harris. They arrived early yesterday.
Now, President Joe Biden has stepped aside from the 2024 election race and he's endorsed Harris to be the Democratic nominee. Republicans have worked quickly to attack her on immigration. Here was GOP Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance speaking sarcastically about Harris at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan over the weekend. We have to give her credit, my friends. She did serve as border does our during the biggest disaster open border that we've ever had in this country.
Let's get President Trump back there, close down that border, and bring some common sense and security to this country. Independent and swing voters also link Harris to problems at the border. Says Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, who describes herself as a never-trumper. That's one of the things I hear. Voters sort of on the more center right bring up about her. Is that, you know, she didn't do anything about the border?
Consider this, even though Kamala Harris isn't yet the official Democratic presidential nominee. Both voters and the Republican Party will force her to answer for the Biden administration's immigration policies in this year's election. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. This message comes from NPR sponsor, the Capital One Venture X-Card. Earn unlimited two X miles on everything you buy.
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It's considered this from NPR. How could the Biden administration's record on immigration affect a Kamala Harris presidential candidacy? The conversation my colleague, Galsa Chang, had with NPR's Sergio Martinez-Biltron. Okay, so Republicans have been attacking her. Calling her the borders are. What exactly has been her role on immigration as vice president?
Yeah, so she was tasked to lead a pretty broad effort of addressing and finding solutions to the rude causes of migration from Central America. Big issues like poverty, violence, and corruption. The conservative self-tried to paint a picture that she's in charge of border policy. Hence, the made up inaccurate term borders are. But that's the role of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mallorcas. He's the one who manages all of the immigration agencies.
Right, but clearly immigration is one of the main issues that Harris is vulnerable on, right? Tell us why. Well, in part because she has been shifting her policy positions over time. I say former DA in California and now as vice president. She's called Trump's border wall a medieval vanity project. And as a senator, she grilled Trump's immigration officials. But she has also angered immigration advocates, Elsa.
In 2021, for example, VP Harris went to Mexico and Guatemala where she won migrants who were thinking about crossing the border illegally. I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States, Mexico border. Do not come. Do not come. Those three words do not come sparked criticism from many immigration advocates and Democrats. They saw them as paternalistic and tone deaf given all the issues in their home countries.
I talked to Judith Brown-Diannis with the Civil Rights Group Advancement Project. She says Harris will now have to explain how she would tackle immigration as president. Is it a humanitarian response or is there a criminalization response? Right? That is not the way to go. We don't need more criminalization. We don't need a border wall. We need to get to root causes. We need to make sure that people are taken care of.
Diannis says the season opportunity for Harris to move immigration in a different direction and talk about her policies. Right. And the situation at the border, it's different now than when Harris was first tapped to focus on it. What exactly has changed? A few things. One is the country of origin of migrants attempting to cross. In 2020, nearly 90% of migrants arrested at the southern border were from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
In 2023, that number went down about 49%. There was a big increase in the number of Venezuelans and folks from other South American countries. The other big change is the number of unauthorized migrants attempting to cross into the US. Last year, that number hit an all time high, although there has been a dramatic decrease over the last four months due to Mexico's enforcement and Biden's asylum restrictions.
Well, Republicans want to paint Harris as the one who's been responsible for those high numbers during the Biden years. So how might Harris push back on that Republican argument, you think? Well, polling show's immigration is one of the most important issues for voters. Messaging will matter a lot. Harris is likely to talk about how she pushed for a bipartisan border reform deal that was defeated by Republicans at the urging of former President Trump, that he's the one who killed the agreement.
She's likely to use that during her campaign, but it may be a hard message to sell. That is Ampere Serhio Martinez-Beltron. Thank you so much, Serhio. You're welcome. This episode was produced by Mark Rivers and Jordan Marie Smith. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Alfredo Carbaha. Our executive producer is Sammy Yennegan. And one more thing before we go. You can now enjoy the Consider This newsletter.
We still help you break down a major story of the day, but you'll also get to know our producers and hosts and some moments of joy from the all things considered team. You can sign up at npr.org slash Consider This newsletter. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro. Support for NPR and the following message come from Washington Wise. Decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day. But what policy changes should investors be watching?
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