Kamala Harris dodged questions about Hispanics increasingly voting Republican and the Biden administration’s responsibility for the crisis at the southern border in an ABC News interview airing Monday evening.
ABC News’ Linsey Davis asked Harris to respond to the issues in addition to Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to bus migrants to Democratic-run cities and the vice president’s doorstep. Abbott began busing migrants to Harris’ residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. in September.
“Busloads of migrants have been dropped off at your doorstep, GOP-led states. Despite those tactics, you do have Republicans who are largely making inroads with Latino voters and there are many critics, some within your own party who say that there’s more that your administration should be doing on the migration front. Do they have a point?” Davis asked.
Harris’ response instead focused on Abbott’s busing effort rather than addressing Davis’ questions.
“So, first of all, let’s agree that people should not be the pawns in a political game, human beings should not be treated as pawns in a political game. What is happening in terms of sending these migrants, most of whom have fleed [sic] great harm, and sending them across the country for the sake of some political showmanship, it’s just irresponsible,” Harris responded.
“If you want to deal with the problem, then do it if you are a leader by participating in the solution, and one very clear solution, very significant solution has been in front of us for years now, we need to pass immigration reform,” Harris added.
The Biden administration tasked Harris with addressing the “root causes of migration” in March 2021. During her tenure, federal authorities have seen a record of more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2022 and more than 1.7 million so far in fiscal year 2023.