Was Kamala Harris the ‘Border Czar’? [FACT CHECK]

Key takeaways:

• The media are positioning whether Kamala Harris was the “border czar” as a  fact, when it is a matter of opinion. Some media outlets have adopted the stance that helps Harris in her campaign most and are falsely presenting it as a fact, which disadvantages Donald Trump.
  
• Although it’s true she did not formally hold that title, mainstream media outlets called Harris the “border czar” in the past, not just Republicans. The term “czar” has been used for decades by legacy media and politicians to describe people tasked with overseeing major policy questions for presidents, first appearing in 1832.
  
• The Biden administration was criticized for a lack of clarity over Harris’ role when it was first announced.
• Although it’s true Harris was tasked with overseeing the administration’s efforts to solve root causes of immigration, experts see that issue as integrally connected to what happens at the border. The media are now trying to present them as somehow disconnected.
  
• Harris visited the border, and both she and Biden mentioned the border when they announced she was taking on the role.

The media’s “fact-checkers” and “misinformation” reporters are suddenly in overdrive insisting that it’s inaccurate to call Kamala Harris the “border czar” now that she’s likely going to be the Democratic nominee.

But is it? So was Kamala Harris the “border czar”?

The truth is that it’s not a fact either way. It’s a matter of interpretation or opinion. Perhaps she was one of the administration’s border czars. Or you could call her an immigration czar. Calling her the border czar, though, is arguable, making it a matter of opinion.

However, by presenting the term “border czar” to describe Harris as a debunked and false fact, belatedly in some cases, the media are staking out a side that benefits Harris and disadvantages Donald Trump. In other words, they are passing their opinions off as facts. THAT’S the misinformation here.

The media’s “fact-checks” also sometimes ignore or downplay the fact that it’s not just Republican foes who called Harris the “border czar” for years (although they have and are now). Mainstream media outlets did too. Watch:

The BBC called Harris the “immigration czar.” In 2023, the New York Daily News wrote, “NYC Mayor Adams demands ‘national czar’ for migrant crisis — a job Vice President Harris is already supposed to have.”

Axios just ran a clarification after criticizing Republicans for calling Harris the “border czar” despite writing in 2021, “Harris, appointed by Biden as border czar, said she would be looking at the ‘root causes’ that drive migration.”

When Biden and Harris announced her new role in 2021, both referenced the “border.” It’s somewhat ironic that the media are trying to say the fact she wasn’t involved more means it’s false to call her the border czar when the criticism over her leadership at the time (in 2021 and 2022 mostly) focused on the fact that she wasn’t doing enough to solve the immigration crisis.

What does the term mean? It’s true Harris never officially held the title “‘border czar.” But that doesn’t mean the title doesn’t arguably fit her role.

In 2010, the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy wrote that the term’s “first documented use in American politics was in 1832 when supporters of President Andrew Jackson used the term to publicly deride Nicholas Biddle, the President of the Second Bank of the United States. One of those supporters was Washington Globe publisher Frank Blair, who called Biddle ‘Czar Nicholas’ to incite comparisons with the tyrannical, contemporary Russian czar, Nicholas 1.” Since then, “the media has largely driven its use,” the article notes, and connotations have “evolved.”

Time Magazine wrote in 2009, “So when does a high-level White House adviser become a czar? No one knows for sure, since the term itself has no formal definition. Essentially it’s a media creation — the White House rarely even acknowledges the title — used as a snappy shorthand to identify and describe the array of policy officials swarming the West Wing.” Noted Time, “Counts of Obama’s czars range from the high teens to about 28.” (Obama’s administration pushed back on the use of the term, though.)

Fast forward to 2024. Time Magazine has decided that it’s factually false to call Harris a “border czar,” as did USA Today.

The media’s fact-checkers are rushing around in a pack right now declaring that Harris wasn’t really the border czar because she was only assigned to tackle the “root causes” of immigration. However, she visited the border in 2021, and how does one separate the root causes from the flood of illegal immigrants over the border? They are integrally intertwined.

Harris herself said, according to CNBC: “The work that we have to do is the work of addressing the root causes, otherwise we’ll continue to see the effect, what is happening at the border.” She told migrants, “Do not come.”

CNN quoted experts saying the same in 2021, when Harris’s staff sought to distance her from the issue’s scope: “You can’t divorce the border from Mexico or Central America or the interior of the US,” said John Sandweg, a former senior Homeland Security official in the Obama administration, to CNN. “It is all one system.”

NPR connected the dots in 2021, writing, “Harris is in charge of the thorny issue of migration from Central America at a time when the Biden administration has struggled to keep up with a surge in migrants.”

Of course, Politifact got into the fact-checking game now too, labeling the term mostly false, and writing, “Biden tasked Harris with addressing the root causes that drive migration to the United States. He did not task her with controlling who and how many people enter the southern U.S. border. That’s the Homeland Security secretary’s responsibility.” Maybe the Biden administration had two border czars?

Obviously, failing to solve or mitigate the root causes enough does affect how many people enter the southern U.S. border, but the media are now trying to split those hairs.

In 2021, the Washington Post reported that Harris “rejected” the border czar term as she realized it could become a political albatross. She’s been trying to shake off the label for years, and there was tension between her and Biden and his staff over the role.

The term “czar” has been used commonly in the past to describe administration officials tasked with overseeing an issue. For example, in 2022, The New York Times described Dr. Rahul Gupta as Biden’s “drug czar.” Drug czar wasn’t his official title, either; it was Director of National Drug Control Policy.

Biden put Harris in charge of arguably the key strategy to stop the flow of illegal immigrants over the border. The Los Angeles Times reported that she went nine months without holding any immigration-related events, though.

NBC News reported that the administration’s lack of clarity surrounding her duties led to confusion, but added that, when Roberta Jacobson stepped down, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Harris would continue “overseeing a whole-of-government approach.” Jacobson “played a key role in the Northern Triangle,” NBC reported.

In 2021, The New York Times called Roberta Jacobson Biden’s “border czar” on the National Security Council. The Hill also called Jacobson a “border czar.” Politico and The Los Angeles Times called Jacobson the “border czar” too.

A 2023 article by Government Executive explored the history of the term “czar” for government positions. According to the article, Bernard Baruch, Woodrow Wilson’s head of the War Industries Board during World War I, was called the “czar of American industry.”

Wikipedia lists a series of “executive branch czars” serving presidents over the years, from an AIDS czar to a rubber czar to a terrorism czar to a transportation czar. Check it out.

The point is that this is not a unique term invented by Republicans to apply solely to Harris. It’s a term commonly used, for years, to describe government officials tapped to lead the nation’s strategy on a key issue. “Czar, in the context of the administrative state, refers to an informal title used for a person with responsibility for a specific policy area,” says Ballotpedia.

So does that fit Harris and the border?

Biden said, when he announced she was taking on the task, that Harris was the most qualified person “to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle, and the countries that can help, need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border.” Our bold.

In 2021, Politico wrote a story titled, “Biden makes Harris the point person on immigration issues amid border surge.” The story notes that Harris “would not be owning the entire immigration portfolio” but rather was “overseeing” diplomatic efforts.

Thus, in conclusion, calling Kamala Harris the “border czar” is a matter of subjective opinion. But it’s not false.