House resolves: Harris’ “root causes” border strategy is a failure

Six House Democrats joined 214 Republicans to pass a non-binding resolution declaring Vice President Harris’ “root causes” policy a failure. 

The  resolution concludes that “​​the continuation of the Biden, Harris border policies would be disastrous for both the United States and the American people.”

The six Democrats, plus one Republican “Yea”, had voted against the real solution to the border crisis, H.R. 2, last year. Their vote for this resolution is a step forward in acknowledging policies that don’t work. The next step for these seven representatives is to support real solutions like H.R. 2. Click their names to see their grade cards.

1. Yadira Caraveo (D., Colo.), 
2. Donald Davis (D., N.C.), 
3. Jared Golden (D., Maine) 
4. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D., Wash.)
5. Henry Cuellar (D., Texas) 
6. Mary Peltola (D., Alaska)
7. John S. Duarte (R., California)

All of the other 213 supporters of the resolutions voted for H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. None of the opponents of the resolution supported H.R. 2. Sixteen representatives did not cast a vote. Roll Call here.

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Root Causes = Fail

As the House-passed resolution notes, “since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office, there have been over 9.7 million illegal immigrant encounters nationwide.” The 2 million who avoided encounters entirely in that time are “more known gotaways than in the previous decade combined.” Recent encounters have dropped significantly, but are still running at record levels.

The effort to address the border crisis at the “root causes” was doomed to fail because:

The gap between Northern Triangle countries/Mexico and the United States is too great to make up, even with billions of dollars in investment.

The border crisis includes migrants from countries around the world; it is not limited to Central America.

The “root causes” of the spike in illegal immigration are the Biden-Harris immigration policies.

The “most qualified” person for a failed effort

Kamala Harris earned a 1% grade from NumbersUSA during her time in the U.S. Senate for her reliable support for rewarding illegal immigration, weakening enforcement, and expanding asylum loopholes. 

On March 21, 2021, President Biden acknowledged the spike in illegal immigration and said  “it’s our responsibility to deal with it and to stop what’s happening.”

He put his Vice President in charge of that effort.

Anyone watching the press conference will immediately note that the strategy Biden and Harris were developing had little to do with enforcement and deterrence.

“The best way to keep people from coming is to keep them from wanting to leave,” the president said.

“While we are clear that people should not come to the border now,” Harris added, “we also understand that we will enforce the law. And that we also – because we can chew gum and walk at the same time – must address the root causes.”

Border Czar or not, what was the point of the “root cause” effort?

The online controversy over whether Harris held the title of “border czar” is both silly and serious. It’s silly because the legacy media used the “czar” shorthand ubiquitously at the time and is now reporting that it was Republicans who came up with the idea. It’s serious because the same media is attempting to memory hole the entire episode.

“The ‘border czar’ mess means we’re all-in on another “Don’t believe your eyes” campaign,” writes Matt Taibbi. 

What has been the point of all of this? Whatever it was, it wasn’t securing the border. Taibbi’s analysis suggests the whole thing has been political theatre:

“Biden was of course trolling Harris with the appointment. Maybe he was upset she’d denounced him as a segregationist busing critic in a primary tussle that saw her campaign put “That little girl was me” t-shirts on sale online for $29.99 before the end of their first debate. Whatever the reason, she was an odd choice to negotiate passage for migrant “returnees,” given that as a candidate, she’d said of undocumented immigrants: “No, absolutely not, they should not be deported.” This may be why, when she finally did fly over the border to Guatemala, she gave an abjectly suicidal presser telling prospective immigrants in a meme-ready double-entendre, “Do not come.” It was the immigration equivalent of “Just say no,” only insincere, self-pitying, and designed to force her boss to take flak from his left (the inevitable “AOC condemns…” headline was in fact up at The Guardian within hours).”

Now that Harris is the presumptive nominee, the question isn’t whether the “border czar”/”root causes” assignment was “trolling,” but whether it still represents Harris’ vision for addressing the worst border crisis in American history. Instead of rewriting history, the legacy media should be asking that question.