Harris’s campaign manager indicates she would keep Biden border policy in place if elected

Vice President Kamala Harris would likely maintain the border policies of President Joe Biden‘s administration if she is elected in November, according to her campaign.

In an interview with CBS News on Friday, Harris’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said the vice president would continue Biden’s partial ban on asylum that he enacted in June through a presidential proclamation that suspended the entry of most migrants crossing the southern border and disqualified those who enter the United States illegally from being granted asylum.

“I think at this point, you know, the policies that are, you know, having a real impact on ensuring that we have security and order at our border are policies that will continue,” Chavez Rodriguez said.

Following Biden’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 election and endorse Harris for president, Democrats have been energized by the idea of moving conversations away from Biden’s age and health. Conversely, Republicans are also ready to turn the tables and focus on hitting Harris over the Biden administration’s border policies and their impact on the influx of immigrants at the southern border. With Harris on pace to be at the top of the ticket, GOP lawmakers feel like the border crisis will be a strong messaging tool, giving her the “border czar” title.

Biden’s decision marked a swift change in immigration policy for the administration, with a promise to “restore” the asylum system as this has become one of the top issues on voters’ minds heading into the 2024 election.

In June, the number of migrants apprehended by Border Patrol agents fell to a three-year low, and migrant crossings decreased even more in July. Chavez Rodriguez praised Biden’s policies as a catalyst for the dramatic reduction in border crossings in the interview on Friday.

Harris’s campaign manager is joining the chorus of Democrats who are blaming the border crisis on former President Donald Trump, who had called on Republicans to kill a bipartisan Senate border deal earlier this year.

“As a result of Donald Trump saying that he didn’t want Republicans to pass it, it failed,” Chavez Rodriguez said. “And we know we need to bring forward solutions, while Donald Trump continues to play politics with this issue.”

“We know at the end of the day the only way to really modernize our immigration system and secure our border is for Congress to pass common-sense immigration legislation,” Chavez Rodriguez added.