Trump Criticizes Harris on U.S. Border Policing – Was It Really Her Responsibility?

From the opening line, Donald Trump’s first television ad targeting Kamala Harris zeroed in on what his campaign sees as her biggest vulnerability—immigration. 

“This is America’s border tsar,” a narrator said, as footage of the vice-president dancing played, “and she’s failed us.” The ad then presented a series of statistics, which the Trump campaign claimed reflected what happened under Harris, who was tasked by President Joe Biden with addressing the border crisis shortly after his inauguration. 

The figures highlighted in the video included 10 million illegal border crossings and 250,000 fentanyl-related overdose deaths. The voiceover concluded with, “Kamala Harris: failed, weak, dangerously liberal.”

In response, the Harris campaign accused the former president of relying on “his trademark lies.” 

It’s no surprise that the Trump campaign’s first major attack on Harris labeled her the “failed border tsar,” holding her responsible for the high numbers of undocumented immigrants at the U.S. southern border. 

Polls have consistently shown that Americans view immigration as one of the top issues facing the country this year, and it will be on many voters' minds as they head to the polls in November.

Since that first ad, Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have repeatedly branded Harris as the “failed border tsar,” linking her to relentless images of people crossing the Rio Grande or slipping under razor wire into the U.S. Critics argue she should have found a way to address the issue over the past four years.

However, the term "border tsar" is contested. Allies and former officials who worked with Harris argue that she was never responsible for policing the border. 

“It was never that position,” said Ricardo Zuniga, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. “She knew from the beginning, as did the entire U.S. government, that it was about tackling migration at its source.”