Illegal migration is perhaps the biggest political vulnerability facing Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. Under the Biden-Harris administration, there were about 8 million migrant encounters in the three-year period from 2021 through 2023. This is an annual rate about 3.5 times higher than that under the Trump-Pence administration between 2017 and 2020.

A Gallup poll earlier this year showed that respondents view immigration as the most important problem facing the United States, far ahead of concerns about the government, inflation, crime, and homelessness. Given voter concerns and the large increase in border encounters, it is unsurprising that Harris is trying to distance herself from the border crisis. This has been challenging for her, because in March 2021, Biden gave a speech introducing Harris in a new role to lead US efforts with Latin American countries to stem the surge of migrants to the United States.

Last week, the Harris campaign issued a list of talking points to downplay Harris’s border responsibilities. These talking points have focused on denying that Harris was the “border czar,” a term some in the media used to describe her border role. Her campaign has instead argued that her role in dealing with border issues was limited to identifying the root causes of migration.

Those who have repeated these talking points include White House press secretary Karine Jeanne-Pierre, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Massachusetts representative Jim McGovern.

But it is not just Democratic party leaders stating these talking points. It has also been the press. Many media sources reported last week that Harris was never the “border czar.” This is odd, because some of those same media sources, including NBC, the Associated Press, Politico,........

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