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“The problem cannot be solved by one person or in four or eight years, as the litany of past failures of people of goodwill and talent has proven,” a person close to the vice president who is not not allowed to speak to the press told me. “But it’s not necessarily bad for her because any improvement from the status quo should be a victory.”
Harris’ exact role has not been fully exposed publicly. While senior administration officials keep claiming that Harris is not responsible for the administration’s overall immigration program or border activity, Symone Sanders, senior advisor and spokesperson chief Harris told reporters on Friday that the vice president had received an “in-depth briefing on the northern triangle and Latin America” and “will meet with leaders in the region in the near future.”
Sergio Gonzales, Harris’ former senior policy adviser on immigration and homeland security, shows how Harris maneuvered in 2017, just weeks after President Donald Trump rolled back the deferred action policy for child arrivals (DACA), as an example of the kind of tact she will bring to the matter. Between heavy, policy-driven meetings with staff and immigration advocates, Senator Harris has given her staff a mandate to prepare drinks and snacks at her Hart Senate office building for DREAMERs, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as DACA protected children, who had come to Capitol Hill.
It was, in part, an effort to show support for the young people at the heart of tug of war politics.
“She’s going to be very committed and involved in the details. And she’s going to think about it from a human-centered perspective, ”Gonzales said.
The DREAM Act, of which Harris was one of ten cosponsors in 2017, was never passed by the Senate. Former collaborators said the issue remained a top priority for her nonetheless. Critics say there have been times in the past where she was too harsh on immigrant communities while holding a position in California – the state with the largest immigrant population in the country. But former aides say her track record in the state shows she has strong skills to deal with the problem now.
As Attorney General, Harris has helped coordinate immigration attorneys for families in need, especially children, who have traveled to the border on several occasions to meet local officials and created a task force targeting transnational gangs. At the time, Harris said: “Violent gangs do not respect borders any more than they respect the law. My office is committed to doing whatever it takes to protect California citizens from gang violence and drug trafficking. “
She also received a boost from her time as a San Francisco district attorney for supporting a policy to return undocumented underage immigrants to authorities if they were accused of committing a felony. Her presidential campaign told CNN that this “policy was to protect San Francisco’s status as a sanctuary.” But they also recognized that “the policy could have been applied more fairly”.
During her Senate race in 2016, where she faced Loretta Sanchez, a Latin American congresswoman, Harris passed on a directive to her staff: make sure you win with Latino voters. And, in most parts of the state, it did. Harris’s first press appearance after his victory was with a large number of immigration activists calling for reforms.
When she began to set up her office in the Senate, the first committee she joined was the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, one of many overseeing immigration policy. But, as a newly elected senator in the minority party without a long-standing relationship with Hill, she had little leverage to pull. As has been the case with immigration policy over the past several decades, the reforms she talked about with activists alongside her on election night never came.
“When you are the youngest member of the committee, the questions you ask should be those that no one else [asked] Before you. She has therefore worked hard to prepare for these checks and confirmation hearings, ”a former senior Senate official told POLITICO.
Harris’s contributions on the immigration front have been largely political rather than legislative. She went viral for her questioning by the prosecution of those Trump appointed to head the department: retired General John Kelly and Kirstjen Nielsen. She also called for Nielsen’s resignation over the administration’s family separation policy.
She has positioned herself as a voice of lawyers during her brief stint – her first Senate speech was to blow up Trump on immigration. Harris would walk home with huge binders of statistics and data on the immigration system, scribble notes in the margins asking for more information, then return to assistants for what have been described as intense preparation sessions. that the staff called “the hot bench”.
“You knew if you were going to do the briefing, you better be fully prepared. It meant having all the facts clear, thinking about different lines of a question, ”Gonzales said. “Knowing that she would really like to dig” and anticipating that it could happen for any area of inquiry.
Harris also quickly introduced legislation to allow detained migrants access to lawyers and – especially given the current climate – introduced legislation to stop the construction of detention centers.
After that initial wave of activity, she worked on other immigration-related bills and then took heat from some members of her own party for refusing to support a deal – backed by her leadership. own party – which would have traded $ 25 billion in spending on Trump. border wall in exchange for something she really wanted: a path to citizenship for DREAMS. Explaining this decision, she said that while supporting “border security”, she was not going to “vote for a wall” under any circumstances.
The deal is dead before it can be introduced, each side blaming the other.
The next iteration of Harris’ immigration portfolio is the same role his boss had towards the end of Obama’s presidency. As vice president in 2015, Biden was given responsibility for a program that injected $ 1 billion into Central America, hoping to help reduce the flow of migrants through Mexico to the southern border of the United States. There were few conditions related to money and due to corruption in the region the situation only got worse. Six years later, that experience is on the minds of the Biden administration as it once again seeks to address the root causes of the problem.
“The president and all of us who worked with him on this – for him on this – have learned a lot,” Roberta Jacobson, special assistant to the president and southern border coordinator, told reporters on March 10. Whether it is a lack of good governance, economic opportunities and security or violence issues, some of them require commitments from governments in terms of anti-corruption and transparency. “
Jacobson added that the administration will insist on more leadership from the leadership and work to ensure “funds get to the communities that really need them.”
Harris’ allies say these lessons will be key to his success. They argue that, counterintuitively, the intractability of this issue actually creates a space where any move in the right direction can be sold as a victory for Harris and the administration. Jess Morales Rocketto, Executive Director of Care in Action, who worked with Harris on writing the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights legislation, says she has no doubts that Harris’ role in the Northern Triangle countries will be difficult, but thinks something can be done because it is an issue that preoccupies Harris.
“I would say she was one of our first and biggest champions on the issue, using our messaging,” Rocketto said. “A lot of people are afraid of immigration, and she has embraced it so much. And over time, when everyone found out that she was the chosen vice president, it felt like it was amazing and also like this – we’re going to lose our immigration champion in Congress. “
While Harris may have the support of the advocacy community, Republicans have already started attacking him for border issues, including children being held in facilities built for adults.
At a press conference after 18 GOP senators traveled to the border last week, Senator Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) linked all questions to Harris, including those not part of his wallet. “It’s your job to fix it,” he says. “I promise you that I will work with you, but you cannot understand your work unless you come here.”
For Harris, who is expected to run for president again in the future, the risk of being blamed for an immigration quagmire for years is very real. But allies who spoke to POLITICO say being underestimated has always been a big contributor to Harris’ success.
“I’m sure in some ways she likes that people say it’s a tough dive,” a former Senate aide said.
Christopher Cadelago contributed to this report.
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