Officials Will Have No Choice But To Face Issues At The Border

Republican Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson will introduce a bill Friday that would require executive branch officials involved in immigration policy to visit the southern border then submit reports about the conditions.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s handling of the immigration crisis inspired the bill, titled the Border Czar Accountability Act, Jackson said. Named Border Czar by President Joe Biden in March, Harris is in charge of immigration policy but has visited the southern border only once, while downplaying calls for her to make more visits to states like Texas and Arizona as “political games.”

“Biden’s push for open border policies and amnesty for all illegal immigrants has created and continued to bolster the worst border crisis in history. The current situation at our southern border is a public health crisis, a haven for criminal activity, and a threat to our national security. Despite alarming data coming in from the border, President Biden’s Senior Cabinet Member and so-called ‘Border Czar’ Kamala Harris has wholly dismissed and ignored her responsibility to address and solve this crisis,” Jackson said.

“President Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris as Border Czar 318 days ago, and she only visited the southern border once for a short photo op, far away from where the crisis is taking place, and only after receiving pressure from me and my Republican colleagues. Her visit proved to be nothing more than a failed attempt to quiet her critics. However, within the same 318 days, Border Czar Harris has found time to waste our taxpayer money on uneventful foreign trips to Northern Triangle countries.”

Jackson’s bill would require officials assigned to immigration matters to file a report upon appointment detailing the impact of Biden administration policies on migration levels and to visit the border once every 60 days. After visiting the border, the official would be required to submit a second report detailing meetings with law enforcement officials, as well as documenting contraband seized by those officials.

The White House has said that Harris’ main goal is to assess the “root causes” of migration. During a visit to Mexico and Guatemala, Harris was protested by Guatemalans, with President Alejandro Giammattei blaming the Biden administration for increased levels of migration. Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed the vice president after Harris told potential migrants not to make the trip.

“This is disappointing to see,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “The U.S. spent decades contributing to regime change and destabilization in Latin America. We can’t help set someone’s house on fire and then blame them for fleeing.”

Border agents encountered a record two million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021. They seized $3.31 billion in counterfeit goods, over 319,000 pounds of marijuana, over 190,000 pounds of methamphetamine, and over 97,000 pounds of cocaine.