VP Kamala Harris Headlines Electric Trucks Event as Border Encounters with Illegal Aliens Up 314 Percent

Vice President Kamala Harris is in New York on Monday to promote the use of electric trucks as the supply chain crisis — and trucking shortage — continues and the latest statistics on the number of illegal alien encounters on the southern border are up 314 percent.

That amounts to 1,659,206 for fiscal year 2021 as of October 22, 2021 — up from 400,651 in fiscal year 2020.

President Joe Biden named Harris the border czar to solve the ongoing flow of migrants streaming across the border.

U.S Customs and Border Protection Southwest Land Border Encounters

NBC News eagerly reported on the New York trip where Harris will be joined by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY):

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to travel to Queens on Monday to pitch heavy-duty electric trucks, climate friendly home heating and other domestic steps to combat global warming as the U.N. climate summit gets underway in Scotland, White House officials tell NBC News.

Harris’ visit comes as the Biden administration is working to show it can credibly deliver on its promise to cut U.S. emissions in half by 2050 even as climate legislation in Congress remains in limbo. Granholm, a longtime advocate for electric vehicles, will head to Glasgow after the stop in New York as one of about a dozen Cabinet members attending the summit, known as COP26.

At JFK, Harris and Granholm are to meet with semi-truck driver Pat Brandon, who has shifted to operating a gas-guzzling truck to an electric one, White House officials said. Cars and trucks are responsible for about 29 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, more than any other source, according to the EPA.

“It’s a one-two punch,” Ike Irby, the vice president’s climate advisor, told NBC News. “He’s abroad advocating for climate leadership internationally. The vice president is here in the United States underscoring how Build Back Better, the bipartisan infrastructure deal will create jobs here at home, address the climate crisis here at home.”

U.S. President Joe Biden presents his national statement as part of the World Leaders’ Summit of the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow on November 1, 2021. (Photo by EVAN VUCCI/AFP via Getty Images)

NBC reported that Harris will also meet with New York state officials to push them to make sure to unionize any jobs in the wind or other alternative energy sector.

“Yet in the past, renewable energy jobs have been lower paying and less likely to be unionized than those in fossil fuels,” NBC reported.

The Biden administration will also announce at the event that the Energy Department will partner with heating and cooling manufacturers to speed up development of electric heat pumps.

The border data is from U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) Title 8 Apprehensions, Office of Field Operations (OFO), Title 8 Inadmissibles, and Title 42 Expulsions.

Demographics for USBP and OFO include, Accompanied Minors (AM), Individuals in a Family Unit (FMUA), Single Adults, and Unaccompanied Children (UC).

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