Kamala Harris declares 'border is secure' as thousands of illegals flood into US every day

[zinn]

'There are still a lot of problems' created by Trump administration,
Harris says

Vice President Kamala Harris twice declared the U.S. southern border is
"secure" during an interview Sunday, despite the tens of thousands of
illegal immigrants who routinely cross into the country every month.

During an interview on "Meet the Press" aired during the 21st anniversary
of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Harris was asked by NBC News
anchor Chuck Todd whether the border is secure. The vice president
responded that the immigration system was "broken" under the Trump
administration and still "needs to be fixed."

"I think that there is no question that we have to do what the president
and I asked Congress to do, the first request we made: pass a bill to
create a pathway to citizenship," Harris said. "The border is secure, but
we also have a broken immigration system, in particular, over the last
four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed."

Todd pushed back against Harris’ claim about the border being secure.

NUMBER OF ILLEGAL MIGRANTS WHO ENTERED US SINCE BIDEN TOOK OFFICE
APPROACHING TWO MILLION

"We're going to have two million people cross this border for the first
time ever. You're confident this border's secure?" Todd asked.

"We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation,
including ours and our administration," Harris replied. "But there are
still a lot of problems that we are trying to fix given the deterioration
that happened over the last four years. We also have to put into place a
law and a plan for a pathway for citizenship for the millions of people
who are here and are prepared to do what is legally required to gain
citizenship."

"We don't have that in place because people are playing politics in a
state like this and in Congress," she added, referring to Texas. "By the
way, you want to talk about bipartisanship on an issue that at one time
was a bipartisan issue both in terms of Republican senators and even
presidents."

Harris, who was visiting the Lone Star state last week for a number of
events, was put in charge of tackling the border crisis by President Biden
shortly after they assumed office in 2021.

Meanwhile, the number of migrant encounters at the southern border has
smashed through the two-million mark this fiscal year, breaching the
already-historic 1.7 million encounters last year, as Border Patrol agents
deal with a migrant crisis unprecedented in U.S. history and one that the
Biden administration has so far failed to slow.

Officials estimated to Fox News Digital in July that more than 500,000
illegals were known to have slipped past agents in FY22 so far but have
been detected by cameras or other sensors. There have been about 55,000
so-called "gotaways" each month this fiscal year, and that number doesn’t
include the individuals who have not been detected by technology.

The number is also in addition to the 389,155 known? gotaways that DHS
Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas previously testified there were in all of
FY21.

Still, the White House is trying to paint the border crisis as under
control. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre came under fire
last month after she claimed people were not walking into the country
illegally.

"That’s not how it works," she said.

Those who have entered illegally have typically been deported if
encountered by ICE. However, the Biden administration imposed limits on
the agency, restricting them to focus on recent border crossers and
national security and public safety threats.

That guidance has since been blocked by a court injunction, but arrests
and deportations plummeted under the Biden administration. In FY21, ICE
arrested 74,082 noncitizens and deported 59,011 — down from 103,603
arrests and 185,884 removals in FY20 and 143,099 arrests and 267,258
deportations in FY19.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kamala-harris-declares-border-secure-
thousands-illegals-flood-us-every-day