House Republican Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., introduced a resolution "strongly condemning" the Biden administration and, specifically, Vice President Kamala Harris and her role as "border czar," over their collective "failure to secure the border."
Stefanik's resolution, introduced Monday, places blame on Harris and the administration for 9.7 million illegal immigrant encounters nationwide since Biden took office in January 2021. It comes amid the coronation of Harris as the new standard bearer of the Democratic Party and presumptive presidential nominee in the aftermath of President Joe Biden's exit from the presidential race on Sunday. Stefanik's resolution links Harris to the border crisis.
Stefanik on Sunday called the situation the "most catastrophic open border crisis in history," adding, "Biden's open border czar Kamala Harris and every elected Democrat owns this border crisis."
Stefanik's resolution highlights that it took Harris 93 days to visit the southern border since being installed as border czar by Biden in March 2021.
Further, Harris — nor Biden — have never had a conversation with current U.S. Border Patrol chief Jason Owens or his predecessor, Raul Ortiz, according to the resolution.
''I've never had one conversation with the president [Biden] or the vice president [Harris], for that matter. I was the Chief of the Border Patrol, I commanded 21,000 people. That's a problem," Ortiz is quoted as saying in the resolution.
In addition to the formal condemnation of Harris and Biden, Stefanik's resolution asserts that four more years of an open border would be "disastrous" for the country.
The resolution "affirms that the American people deserve elected officials who understand the gravity of the crisis at the border and who will execute the policies to fix the border crisis; clearly and firmly states that the continuation of the Biden, Harris border policies would be disastrous for both the United States and the American people."
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also took aim at Harris over the border in a social media post late Monday night.
"Lyin' Kamala Harris, the Biden appointed 'Border Czar' who never visited the Border, and whose incompetence gave us the WORST and MOST DANGEROUS Border anywhere in the World, has absolutely terrible pole [sic] numbers against a fine and brilliant young man named DONALD J. TRUMP!" he wrote, in part.