Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa introduced a bill Thursday to block Vice President Kamala Harris from using taxpayer money to fund her travel expenses until Harris addresses the current immigration crisis at the southern border by going there and issuing a report.
“We have an absolute crisis at the border, and Vice President Harris was appointed to lead the administration’s efforts on the border crisis, but it’s been 56 days, and in that time she hasn’t been to the border once,” Hinson told Fox News on Wednesday.
“She hasn’t held a news conference on the administration’s efforts for a plan, and I think it’s time she does that.”
“It’s unacceptable that after nearly two months as the Administration’s so-called point person on the border crisis, Vice President Kamala Harris still hasn’t visited the Southern Border and heard directly from the brave law enforcement officers about what they are facing on the ground,” Hinson said in a news release. “As illegal immigration has surged, cartels are emboldened, and record levels of fentanyl are pouring into our country, this crisis continues to be out of sight and out of mind for this Administration.
“This bill will stop Vice President Harris from traveling internationally on the taxpayers’ dime until she visits the Southern Border and reports to the American people on the steps the Administration is taking to address this crisis.”
The U.S.-Mexico border is seeing an unprecedented surge in illegal aliens trying to make their way across from Mexico into the United States.
Countless people, including Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, have criticized the Biden-Harris administration for aggravating the situation through its action and inaction.
Despite there being a crisis for more than four months now, neither President Joe Biden nor Harris has gone to the border to get a first-hand look at the problem.
Biden appointed Harris to work on solving the border crisis in March.
Critics have accused Harris of being “missing” at the border and taking trips to “bakeries in Chicago and elsewhere” instead of going to where the crisis she is supposed to solve is occurring.
So far, Harris has met virtually with leaders in Mexico and Guatemala and plans on visiting the countries in June, Fox News reported.
“She’s putting yarn shops and bakeries before the border,” Hinson said to Fox News.
“She’s Zoomed with the Mexican president, but I think that sends the absolute wrong message to the men and women that are putting their lives on the line every day, not to mention the men and women and families that live in these communities along the border and the communities of Iowa — every state is a border state.”
The bill Hinson introduced Thursday intends to force Harris to do what she has failed to do since the beginning of the crisis — a crisis the Biden-Harris administration has repeatedly downplayed.
The See the Crisis Act seeks to bar Harris from using federal funds to pay for her travel expenses, including the use of Air Force Two and security details for travel abroad, until she goes to the border to “review the activities of the Department of Homeland Security and other Federal agencies responsible for enforcing and implementing immigration laws” and submits a report to Congress.
The report would need to include a “detailed” list of federal agencies and local supporting law enforcement officials that Harris meets with near the border, as well as any plans she has to visit the border again after its submission.
Harris’ report would also need to state the estimated amount of money Harris or any other government agency plans to dole out to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador as part of an international aid package intended to address the humanitarian crisis.
