The Biden administration’s infighting over the continuing border crisis has been revealed in a lengthy report by Axios. A former senior Biden official said Vice President Kamala Harris’ work on immigration and the border was “at best ineffective,” and asserted that Harris didn’t see it as her responsibility.
President Joe Biden tasked his vice president Kamala Harris to take on the root causes of the border crisis. Axios reported on Monday that Harris and her aides made it clear early on that her responsibilities started and ended only with “root causes” and factors driving immigration from countries like Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, known as the Northern Triangle.
Axios also highlighted turmoil within the Biden administration such as when the Department of Homeland Security imposed a 100-day pause on deportations on Biden’s first day in office, and the outlet reported DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas opposed the pause at the time.
Additionally, Harris has clashed with former Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice, according to Axios, but both denied the reporting. “Rice appeared to others to take pride in being more informed on the border than Harris,” Axios reported. “Some Harris aides found Rice to be disrespectful toward the vice president and dismissively referred to the former UN ambassador as just a ‘staffer.’”
Rice also called Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra a “bi— a–” over “what was seen as his reluctance to find more space in child migrant shelters,” according to the outlet.
Fox News reports that Biden was also critical of his aides over the crisis in January 2023, when he paid a visit to the southern border. The report notes the president “lit into his team,” former Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon and Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall, on Air Force One.