This week, the reality of governing and problem solving came crashing down on Vice President Kamala Harris as she fumbled her way through a trip to Guatemala and Mexico to address the "root causes" of the unprecedented surge of illegal immigration into the United States from the south.
"And I haven't been to Europe, and I mean, I don't understand the point that you're making. I'm not discounting the importance of the border," Harris responded after being asked by NBC News anchor Lester Holt why she had not yet visited the U.S.-Mexico border.
"I'm not finished," Harris snapped at a Univision reporter after being asked the question again.
"Listen, I've been to the border before. I will go again, but when I'm in Guatemala (laughs) dealing with root causes, I think we should have a conversation about what's going on in Guatemala," Harris said during a press conference.
But Harris didn't have to go all the way to Guatemala to search for the root causes of the crisis. Instead, she could have simply walked into the Oval Office.
"The message changed to 'we're going to reunite families, and we're going to reunite children.' The very next day, the coyotes were here organizing groups of children to take them to the United States," Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei told CBS News in an interview prior to Harris's arrival in the country, blasting President Joe Biden's immigration policies.
The historic influx of illegal immigration, averaging more than 170,000 people per month throughout the spring, is a direct result of President Biden's focus on undoing President Donald Trump's policies, no matter the cost or consequence.
In Arizona and New Mexico, hundreds of already manufactured border wall panels are sitting in lots and rotting away. The repeal of the Remain in Mexico policy, which forced individuals to wait in Mexico until their claims were processed, has opened the floodgates. With Border Patrol agents overwhelmed and front deployed, thousands of individuals are entering the U.S. undetected and making their way into communities across the country. The message from the Biden administration "not to come," while allowing children and their parents to cross into the United States and stay indefinitely, in many cases using taxpayer dollars to fly them to a family member already in the country illegally, is the main factor. Eligibility for taxpayer-funded healthcare and other government services, which Democrats proudly proclaim are open to illegal immigrants, is a massive incentive. For the cartels raking in $20 million per day, human smuggling is now more lucrative than the drug trade.
The White House has repeatedly avoided visits to the U.S. southern border for the sake of preserving the narrative that there is no crisis but rather a situation they are managing. If the Biden administration is truly interested in the root causes of the ongoing, overwhelming and inhumane situation, a quick review of their policies and disjointed talking points would serve them well.
