As critics turn up the heat on Kamala Harris, members of the media are now saying she was never the ‘Border Czar.’ In one case, Axios also went back to an article from years ago and corrected their story, saying they incorrectly referred to Kamala Harris as the border czar.

Fact check website Politifact reported on this situation too, saying the following:

“Border Czar Kamala Harris’ reversal of President Trump’s immigration policies has created an unprecedented and illegal immigration, humanitarian and national security crisis on our southern border,” Trump campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told PolitiFact in a statement.

But Biden didn’t put Harris in charge of overseeing border security.

In a meeting with Harris in March 2021, Biden said Harris would lead U.S. diplomatic efforts and work with officials in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to stem migration to the U.S. Biden said that when he was vice president, he “got a similar assignment” and that the Obama administration secured $700 million to help countries in Central America.

Donald Trump is aggressively going after Kamala Harris on an issue at the center of his campaign, seizing on a misunderstood assignment from 2021 that gave rise to the term.
Kamala Harris looks on as Joe Biden.
Vice President Kamala Harris looks on as President Joe Biden speaks about border security policies in the White House in January 2023.Drew Angerer / Getty Images file

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is going on offense by painting new presidential campaign rival Kamala Harris as the face of a chaotic U.S. border, seizing on an assignment President Joe Biden gave her in 2021 to work with Central American countries to tackle the “root causes” of migration.

Trump labeled the vice president the “border czar” no fewer than six times in a fiery rally speech Wednesday in North Carolina, centering his criticism of her on the overwhelmed asylum system. “Under border czar Harris, illegal aliens are pouring in by the millions and millions and millions,” Trump said, drawing jeers from the crowd as he called Harris “crazy.”

The term, which Republicans has used widely to criticize Harris, traces back to March 2021, when Harris was charged with addressing the surge of Central American migrants, who came mostly from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where violence and organized crime have driven millions to flee the region. The terms “czar” and “border czar” did not appear in White House materials, but they caught on among critics.

Days later, Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, a Republican, made one of the first prominent references to it in a letter to the White House asking Harris “to visit the border and see the crisis for yourself.”