In a bid to clear up confusion over Vice President Kamala Harris’s role in addressing the southern border crisis, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has requested that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) release all correspondence referencing Harris as the “Border Czar”.
The term “Border Czar” was first used by the establishment media in March 2021, when President Joe Biden tasked Harris with leading efforts to stem migration to the southern border. Since then, the media has referred to Harris as the “Border Czar” at least eight times.
However, in recent months, some outlets have backtracked on this designation. PolitiFact claimed in a report that Harris’s title as “Border Czar” was “mostly false”, while Axios initially reported that Harris was appointed as “Border Czar” by Biden, only to later claim that she never actually held the title.
“The Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the ‘border czar’ title — which she never actually had,” Axios posted on X. The reversal caused X to post a community note on Axios’s post:
Gaetz’s request for clarification comes in the form of a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in which he demands that the agency provide all communication referencing Harris in relation to the terms “czar”, “border”, “migration”, or “immigration”. Gaetz has given Mayorkas a deadline of August 30, 2024, to provide the requested information.
