Liberal media claims Kamala Harris was never ‘border czar,’ contradicting their own reporting

Liberal media outlets have begun pushing a new talking point as the Democratic presumptive nominee, Kamala Harris, marches toward Election Day: The vice president was never President Biden's "border czar."

Outlets, including Time Magazine, USA Today, The New York Times, New York Daily News, and Newsweek, all echoed similar sentiments, suggesting that the unofficial title was "misleading" and inaccurate.

However, their claims are, at best, puzzling, considering that some of those same publications referred to Harris as the "border czar" or something similar in reporting that dates back to early 2021.

Axios drew particular criticism over a piece that seemed to contradict its own previous reporting, and it even updated its own story Wednesday by saying it "incorrectly" called her a border czar in the past.

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Major liberal media outlets suggested that Kamala Harris was never President Biden's "border czar," despite past reporting that used the same language.  (Photo by Brendan Smialowski /AFP)

"The Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the 'border czar' title — which she never actually had," reporter Stef Kight wrote on Wednesday.

Critics pointed out Axios reported in 2021 that Harris was "appointed by Biden as border czar." Another 2021 Axios report, by Kight herself, was headlined, "Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis."

Left-leaning fact-checker PolitiFact also got in on the action, calling a Republican claim about her being the border czar "mostly false" and part of an effort to "link her" to her own administration's immigration policy.

Past reporting from media outlets across the political spectrum and comments from Biden himself appear to link Harris to the administration's immigration plans unambiguously.

Harris was tasked early on in the Biden administration with addressing the root causes of mass migration from Central and South America. That part of her portfolio has emerged as a cornerstone of GOP-led attacks against the de facto Democratic presidential nominee, as states across the country continue to struggle with the migrant crisis.

In a March 24, 2021, video, Biden said that Harris was "leading the effort to coordinate with Mexico and other Northern Triangle nations to address issues such as the surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border."

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This shows former President Trump, Vice President Harris and the southern border. ((Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Andrew Harnik/Getty Images and Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images))

Following Biden's comments, Politico reported that Biden had made Harris the "point person on immigration issues" amid the border surge.

"Biden tasks Harris with 'stemming the migration' on southern border," NBC reported at the time.

"Biden taps VP Harris to lead response to border challenges," a headline from The Associated Press read.

In April 2021, The New York Times implied that Harris was taking over from Roberta Jacobson, who was widely known as the "border czar."

But later that year, the Times said it was "false" to label Harris the same way.

As the term gained steam, other outlets joined in an effort to distance Harris from it.

"Republicans try to crown Harris the 'border czar.' She rejects the title," a 2021 Washington Post headline read.

While "czar" is not an official title, the term has long been used as shorthand for someone overseeing a particular issue, policy, or department.

"Trump's border czar pick says he hasn't agreed to the job," a 2019 CNN headline read. The article detailed Trump's interest in hiring former ICE director Tom Homan for an unspecified job related to immigration.

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Tom Homan, former deputy director of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), speaks during a press conference with Jeff Sessions, U.S. attorney general, not pictured, regarding immigration policy in San Diego, California, U.S., on Monday, May 7, 2018.  (Ariana Drehsler/Bloomberg)

The New York Times also used the language to describe Homan with the headline, "Trump appoints a loyalist as 'border czar' in latest immigration reshuffle."

"Trump says former acting ICE chief who said undocumented immigrants 'should be afraid' will be new border czar," CNBC reported at the time.

Commentaries about the term "border czar" have also made their way to the airwaves of CNN and MSNBC.

"What [Trump] said about Harris and immigration was not true," CNN anchor John Berman said on Wednesday. "She was never appointed border czar. She was put in charge of diplomatic efforts with the so-called Northern Triangle."

During a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Symone Sanders-Townsend urged Democrats to "counter the misinformation."

"You already hear folks talking about the border czar. She wasn't the border czar. She did diplomacy in Central America," Sanders-Townsend said.

Later that day on MSNBC, Washington Post correspondent Ashley Parker said that Harris was handed several "challenging issues" and became the "unofficial border czar."

Attempts to distance Harris from the immigration issue also appear to be at odds with past comments on major networks.

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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at West Allis Central High School on July 23, 2024, in West Allis, Wisconsin. Harris made her first campaign appearance as the party's presidential candidate, with an endorsement from President Biden.  (Jim Vondruska / Stringer)

In September 2022, NBC News' Chuck Todd said Harris had been tasked with some "intractable" assignments such as "solving the immigration crisis at the border."

Other pundits, including "The View" co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin and CNN's Van Jones acknowledged in 2023 that while immigration reform has long been a difficult and complex issue, Harris is the one overseeing it and seems unable to rise to the task.  

The White House previously rejected the "border czar" description. Instead, it said she was tasked with leading diplomatic outreach to tackle the "root causes" of migration in the Northern Triangle countries.

"The only ‘plan’ Donald Trump has to secure our border is ripping mothers from their children and a few xenophobic placards at the Republican National Convention," Harris spokesperson Kevin Munoz told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

"He tanked the toughest bipartisan border security deal in a generation because for Donald Trump, this has never been about actually securing the border – it’s always about himself. He can make up whatever lies he wants but the fact is there’s only one candidate in this race who will fight for real solutions to help secure our nation’s border, and that’s Vice President Harris."

Harris would visit Mexico and Guatemala in 2021 as part of that assignment, and she also paid a visit to the southern border in El Paso, Texas. A project to rally private-sector investment in the region via a call to action has seen more than $5.2 billion committed since May 2021 from over 50 companies and organizations. The number of encounters from those three countries has since fallen from over 700,000 in FY 21 to over 330,000 this fiscal year so far, although it is not clear to what extent it is connected to her efforts.

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However, with the crisis at the border still an ongoing issue, Republicans and conservatives have already resurfaced Harris' broader stances on immigration outside of her role as vice president. The Republican National Committee, within an hour of Biden stepping aside, posted a clip of Harris talking in 2018 about considering abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, in a memo obtained by Fox News, pointed to those remarks, as well as a previous pledge to decriminalize border crossings. It also described her as the "border czar" and pointed to her past support of the Biden administration's efforts to create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

The White House did not return Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Fox News' Adan Shaw and Brian Flood contributed to this report.