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Harris Took The Reins On Solving A Key Region’s Migrant Crisis — Nearly 1.8 Million People Crossed Into US Anyway

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Jason Hopkins

 

Over a million migrants hailing from Central America have crossed illegally into the U.S. since Vice President Kamala Harris was tapped to address the illegal immigration crisis stemming from that region.

Since the launch of her presidential campaign, Harris and her allies have vehemently pushed back on the narrative that she was appointed to serve as “border czar” for the White House, arguing that she was only given a limited role addressing the “root causes” of illegal migration stemming from Central America. However, roughly 1.7 million people from the Northern Triangle region, which includes El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, flooded into the U.S. after she was tasked with mitigating the crisis.

“It’s total chaos on the border, and has been for the last three and a half years,” retired Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott said about the current border situation to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “America is put at risk for no good reason and they’re being sold a bill of goods that’s just not true.”

Border Patrol agents deployed along the southern border encountered a total of 1,739,795 migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras attempting to cross illegally into the country between April 2021 — Harris’ first full month serving as “border czar” — and June 2024, according to a review of the latest available data by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“I’ve asked her, the VP, today — because she’s the most qualified person to do it — to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that help — are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border,” Biden publicly declared on March 24, 2021.

The president added that there was nobody “better qualified” to handle the task and said she wouldn’t have to check in with him because she “knows what she’s doing.”

“But — so, Madam Vice President, thank you. I gave you a tough job, and you’re smiling, but there’s no one better capable of trying to organize this for us,” Biden continued.

Since that speech was given, 253,027 illegal migrants from El Salvador, 798,678 illegal migrants from Guatemala and 688,090 illegal migrants from Honduras have descended on the U.S.-Mexico border — totaling the more than 1.7 million encounters, according to CBP data. The numbers under Harris’ “border czar” tenure surpass the roughly 1,098,000 Border Patrol apprehensions of these three nationalities seen under the Trump administration from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2020, according to past CBP data.

What further exacerbated the immigration crisis under the Biden-Harris administration was the influx of other foreign nationals who have used Central America as a way station en route to the U.S. border — most notably Venezuelans. While non-Central Americans did not technically fall under the vice president’s purview, the lack of border enforcement in the region has skyrocketed the U.S. asylum crisis.

Less than 50,000 Venezuelan nationals were encountered by Border Patrol agents in fiscal year 2021, according to CBP data. That number blew up to more than 187,000 in fiscal year 2022 and peaked at more than 200,600 in fiscal year 2023.

Venezuelans are far from the only ones crossing the Central American region in their journey to illegally enter the U.S. More than half a million U.S.-bound migrants crossed the Darien Gap —  a dense jungle that spans across the border of Panama and Colombia — in 2023 alone, according to the Council on Foreign Relations

Illegal border crossings from other nationalities have also exploded under Harris’ “border czar” tenure.

There were less than 2,000 encounters with Chinese nationals at the southern border in fiscal year 2022, according to CBP Data. That figure exploded to over 24,000 in fiscal year 2023 and has already surpassed 33,000 this fiscal year, despite the year not yet over.

Similar spikes in illegal southern border crossings took place under the Biden-Harris administration by Indians, Turks, Nicaraguans, Russians and other nationalities.

Republicans have long hammered Harris for allegedly not taking the border crisis seriously, and recently released surveys indicate that most Americans believe her to be supportive of “open borders.”

For her part, Harris did visit Central America in June 2021 and warned would-be illegal migrants: “Do not come. Do not come.” She also visited the U.S.-Mexico border once in June 2021 after facing mounting pressure to do so.

Since Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential contest and Harris became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, she has attempted to cast herself as a tough-on-crime prosecutor who would govern with border hawk tendencies. Her campaign has released two different advertisements claiming she would “fix” the border crisis and hire more Border Patrol agents.

Harris previously supported decriminalizing illegal border crossings, but the latest statements from her campaign suggest she has completely flipped on the position. It’s also not immediately clear if her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, remains a supporter of sanctuary city policies.

“The truth is, Vice President Kamala Harris has always been for open borders. She can’t run from that,” said Joey Chester, communications manager for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, in a statement to the DCNF.

Chester listed Harris’ past opposition for a border wall, rejection of more funding for Border Patrol agents and detention beds and past support for DACA beneficiaries to be compensated as congressional employees as reasons to be suspect of her current pivot to the right on border enforcement.

“These policies have proven disastrous and are deeply unpopular with the American people,” he added. “Words can’t change the fact that the current state of America’s borders, and the influx of illegal aliens in the United States today, is the doing of President Biden and Vice President Harris.”

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Flickr/Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

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Trump Admin To Push UN Overhaul Of ‘Haphazard And Chaotic’ Refugee Policy

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Melissa O’Rourke

The Trump administration will soon push the United Nations (UN) to rewrite the international asylum rules, calling the current framework a “haphazard and chaotic system” routinely abused by bad actors, the Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed.

U.S. officials are planning an event later this month during the UN’s annual General Assembly to spotlight reforms aimed at curbing asylum abuses that have “disrupted entire regions, enriched criminal cartels and violated the sovereignty of nations,” a State Department spokesperson told the DCNF. Proposed changes include requiring migrants to seek protection in the first country they enter rather than “asylum shopping” for a destination of choice.

“The United States plans to begin a conversation on reforming an outdated, decades-old system that has long been abused by bad actors and economic migrants to fuel the global migration crisis,” the spokesperson told the DCNF.

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Most countries, including the U.S., are signatories to UN treaties that set a framework for those fleeing persecution to seek asylum at another country’s borders. The Trump administration, however, plans to push for “commonsense and necessary reforms” emphasizing that every nation has a right to control its borders, there is no right to receive asylum in a country of choice, asylum is meant to be temporary, sovereign states determine when return is possible, and that every country is obligated to accept return of its citizens, the spokesperson said.

European countries that have taken in millions of refugees, many from Muslim-majority nations, have been grappling with social turmoil and violence linked to migrants. Germany alone — with a population of 83 million — had 3 million refugees as of mid-2024, according to the UN.

The push aligns with President Donald Trump’s broader push to tighten asylum standards and “realign” U.S. policy.

“Cities and small towns alike, from Charleroi, Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Ohio, to Whitewater, Wisconsin, have seen significant influxes of migrants,” Trump wrote in his Jan. 20 executive order temporarily suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which is currently being challenged in court.

“The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees,” the order continued.

The administration is also expected to set its refugee admission ceiling for fiscal year 2026 this month. More than 100,000 refugees were admitted into the country under former President Joe Biden in fiscal year 2024 — the highest figure since 1994 — according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Meanwhile, Trump has highlighted the violence and discrimination faced by Afrikaners, the minority group of predominantly Dutch descent in South Africa, whose harrowing testimonies the Daily Caller has documented. In May, the president signed an executive order promoting the resettlement of Afrikaners, and several groups have already arrived in the U.S.

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Transgender Roomate of Alleged Charlie Kirk Assassin Cooperating with Investigation

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Harold Hutchison

The man accused of assassinating Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk reportedly lives with a transgender-identifying “partner,” according to Fox News reporter Brooke Singman.

Authorities have arrested Tyler Robinson, 22, accusing him of gunning down Kirk during a TPUSA “Prove Me Wrong” event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, during which the late activist was debating attendees on a variety of topics, including transgenderism. Authorities say that communications between Robinson and the biological male who identified as a transgender female confirm Robinson as the person responsible for the assassination of Kirk, Singman posted on X Saturday.

Kirk had engaged in a debate about transgender mass shooters with Hudson Kozak shortly before being assassinated. The subject became a hot-button issue following the Aug. 27 shooting during an all-school mass held at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis that left two children dead.

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Robinson’s reported partner, previously described as a “roommate” during the Friday press conference announcing his arrest, is cooperating with authorities, the New York Post reported.

Authorities had recovered a rifle containing ammunition that was reportedly marked with left-wing messaging, from a wooded area near the site of Kirk’s fatal shooting. The phrases included “Hey fascist! Catch!” and “If you read this you are gay LMAO,” according to Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.

Kirk founded TPUSA, an organization for conservative college and high school students, in June 2012, according to the group’s website. He also hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show,” a podcast that later became a radio show on the Salem Radio Network, according to his biography on TPUSA’s site.

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