During a “Meet the Press” interview released Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris claimed twice that the U.S. southern border is “secure.”
Harris’ comments were made in an interview on “Meet the Press,” which aired during the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Vice President was asked by NBC News anchor Chuck Todd if the border is secure.
Harris said 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,” she 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,” Harris added.
Todd pushed back against Harris’ claim, noting the amount of border crossings the U.S. is facing.
“We’re going to have two million people cross this border for the first time ever. You’re confident this border’s secure?” he asked.
“We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration,” Harris responded.
She added that “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,” she continued.
Harris claimed that is not in place because “people are playing politics in a state like this and in Congress,” 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,” she added.
According to Customs and Border Protection, the number of migrant encounters at the southern border has surpassed the two-million mark.
In 2021, 1.73 million migrants in total were encountered at the border.
Last month, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed migrants were not just walking into the country illegally. “That’s not how it works.”
“There are solutions, and sadly this has become such a partisan issue, instead of something where we work on it together, agreeing that what we’re doing is not working as a nation. It’s not working,” Harris said about fixing the system.
Harris was heavily criticized last year for not visiting the border for months after President Joe Biden appointed her to address the border crisis.