Trump zeroes in on 'border czar Harris' attack as her campaign pushes back
Donald Trump is attacking Kamala Harris on immigration as "border czar," a title she never had. Her campaign for president is pushing back.
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is going on offense by painting new presidential campaign rival Kamala Harris as the face of a chaotic U.S. border, seizing on an assignment President Joe Biden gave her in 2021 to work with Central American countries to tackle the “root causes” of migration.
Trump labeled the vice president the “border czar” no fewer than six times in a fiery rally speech Wednesday in North Carolina, centering his criticism of her on the overwhelmed asylum system. “Under border czar Harris, illegal aliens are pouring in by the millions and millions and millions,” Trump said, drawing jeers from the crowd as he called Harris “crazy.”
The term, which Republicans has used widely to criticize Harris, traces back to March 2021, when Harris was charged with addressing the surge of Central American migrants, who came mostly from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where violence and organized crime have driven millions to flee the region. The terms “czar” and “border czar” did not appear in White House materials, but they caught on among critics.
Days later, Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, a Republican, made one of the first prominent references to it in a letter to the White House asking Harris “to visit the border and see the crisis for yourself.”
“Now that President Biden has named you Border Czar in charge of the administration’s response, I want to express to you the threats and challenges caused by this administration’s open border policies,” he wrote in a letter.
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