Since Vice President Kamala Harris was appointed to tackle the illegal immigration crisis originating in Central America, more than one million immigrants from Central America have entered the United States illegally.

Since the start of her presidential campaign, Harris and her supporters have vehemently denied the notion that she was appointed as the White House's “border secretary,” arguing that she was given a limited role to address the “root causes” of illegal migration emanating from Central America after she was tasked with mitigating the crisis that has seen some 1.7 million people flood into the US from the Northern Triangle countries, which include El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. (RELATED: 'Legitimate concerns': Chip Roy demands clarification on migrant shelter crime data after deadly police shootout)

“The border is in complete chaos and has been for the last three and a half years,” former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott told the Daily Caller News Foundation about the current situation at the border. “America is being put in danger for no reason and we are being told lies that are simply not true.”

Border Patrol agents deployed along the southern border encountered a total of 1,739,795 migrants attempting to enter the country illegally from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras between April 2021, Harris' first full term as a “border patrol officer,” and June 2024. According to A review of the most recent available data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“Today, I've asked the vice president to lead our efforts with Mexico, the Northern Triangle and donor countries who will need our help to stem the flow of so many people and to stem migration to our southern border,” Biden said. Publicly declared March 24, 2021.

The president added that there was no one “better qualified” to carry out the job, and said she didn't need to check with him because she “knows what she's doing.”

“But thank you, Mr. Vice President. I gave you a difficult job, and you're laughing, but there's no one better suited to organize this for us than you,” Biden continued.

Since that speech, 253,027 illegal immigrants from El Salvador, 798,678 illegal immigrants from Guatemala, and 688,090 illegal immigrants from Honduras have crossed the US-Mexico border, totaling more than 1.7 million cases, according to CBP data. These figures, under Harris' tenure as “border czar,” surpass the roughly 1,098,000 immigrants from those three countries apprehended by the Border Patrol between fiscal years 2017 and 2020 under the Trump administration. According to Historical CBP Data.

Further exacerbating the migration crisis under the Biden-Harris administration has been the influx of other foreigners, particularly Venezuelans, who have used Central America as a stop-off point on the way to the U.S. border. While people from countries outside of Central America technically don't fall under the vice president's jurisdiction, lapses in border security in the region have contributed to a surge in the U.S. asylum crisis.

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 30: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris introduces President Joe Biden during an event on the administration's efforts to regulate artificial intelligence in the East Room of the White House on October 30, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

According to CBP data, Border Patrol agents encountered fewer than 50,000 Venezuelan nationals in fiscal year 2021. That number will jump to more than 187,000 in fiscal year 2022 and peak at more than 200,600 in fiscal year 2023.

Venezuelans are not the only people passing through Central America to illegally enter the U.S. More than 500,000 U.S.-bound migrants crossed the Darien Gap, a stretch of dense jungle that straddles the border between Panama and Colombia, in 2023 alone, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

During Harris' term as Border Minister, there was also a sharp increase in illegal border crossings by people of other nationalities.

According to CBP data, fewer than 2,000 Chinese nationals were encountered at the southern border in fiscal year 2022. That figure is set to skyrocket to more than 24,000 in fiscal year 2023, and the current fiscal year has already topped 33,000, even though it hasn't yet begun.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, there has been a similar surge in illegal crossings at the southern border by Indians, Turks, Nicaraguans, Russians and other nationalities.

Republicans have long blasted Harris for not taking the border crisis seriously, but recently released polls show most Americans believe she supports “open borders.”

Harris visited Central America in June 2021. And warned She called on would-be immigrants to “don't come. Don't come.” She also visited the U.S.-Mexico border once in June 2021 amid mounting pressure.

Since Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and Harris became a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, she has sought to position herself as a prosecutor with tough-on-crime, border-hardening tendencies. Her campaign has released two different ads claiming she will “solve” the border crisis and hire more Border Patrol agents.

Harris has previously supported decriminalizing illegal border crossings. Latest Statement Comments coming out of her campaign suggest she has completely shifted positions, and it was also not immediately clear whether her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is still a supporter of sanctuary city policies.

“The fact is, Vice President Kamala Harris has always supported open borders, and she cannot walk away from that position,” Joey Chester, communications director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in a statement to the DCNF.

Chester listed Harris' past. Opposition For the border wall Denial of further funding Border Patrol agents, detention beds, and past support for DACA recipients should be compensated Parliamentary staff as a reason to suspect that she is now leaning to the right on border security.

“These policies have had disastrous consequences and are deeply unpopular with the American people,” he added. “Words cannot change the fact that the current state of our border and the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States today are the work of President Biden and Vice President Harris.”

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

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