White House unable to describe what Kamala Harris is doing on immigration
Migrants have surged to the border as Title 42 policy is set to expire
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The White House said Monday that it was unable to describe what Vice President Kamala Harris is doing to address the "root cause" of mass migration to the southern border, one of the major issues in her portfolio.
"I don’t have anything to lay out specifically on what that work looks like," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked about Harris’s role at a briefing Monday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was unable to specify on Vice President Kamala Harris' role at the border. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Jean-Pierre referred further questions about the vice president's work to her office, which did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
A surge of migrants has arrived at the southern border in recent days as Wednesday marks the expiration of the so-called Title 42 policy, a pandemic-era policy under President Donald Trump that called on border agents to turn away migrants at the border as a way of coping with the pandemic. Jean-Pierre insisted last Wednesday that the end of the Title 42 policy does not mean the border is open.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted that the end of Title 42 does not mean there is an open border. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Encounters at the southern border hit an all-time high this year and stood at 2.4 million as of September. Border officials and others expect these encounters to spike as the Title 42 policy comes to an end.
TEXAS BORDER PATROL FACILITY OVERWHELMED WITH ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AS TITLE 42 EXPIRATION LOOMS
FILE - President Biden has yet to visit the southern border as president. (Screenshot/Twitter)
Harris has insisted in recent months that "the border is secure." The vice president traveled to the border once, six months into her term, but has not been back since then. She has spent three days in Latin America on two separate trips in her role.
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A tracker of Harris’ scheduled events and meetings from the Los Angeles Times shows the last public appearance she made in which she discussed immigration was on June 15. The database shows 20 scheduled events for Harris on immigration in her nearly two years as vice president but only three since Aug. 5, 2021.