The Republican immigration strategy deepens the power vacuum of Kamala Harris

The figure of Kamala Harris has been almost non-existent since the legislature began The management of the border, which is led directly by the vice president, has undermined her political credibility The vice president of the United States found last Wednesday, at the door of her house in Washington, two buses with 75 migrants coming from the border with Mexico. They had been sent by the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, to demand that the Democrats “do their job and strengthen the border” (https://www.dallasnews.com/espanol/al-dia/inmigracion/2022/09/ 15/migrants-buses-greg-abbott-texas-washington-house-kamala-harris/). A political trick with which the Republicans not only show their disagreement with the management of border issues, which has been directly led by Harris, but also put the focus on a vice president who has almost disappeared from American political life, at least at least level that is expected from the second most powerful person in the country, at a political level. Although the Republican strategy has included sending migrants to other cities, such as New York or the island of Martha’s Vineyard, the intention of Abbott and other conservative governors has always been to denounce the inaction of the Biden government on the immigration issue. In this case, the fact of leaving dozens of people at the entrance of the house of a Harris, semi absent from political life, aims to feed the feeling of power vacuum that the conservatives want to convey to their voters. Electoral elections Y is that, less than two months before the legislative elections, the stakes are already high. While the vice president struggles to reinvent herself before the public, aware that she has run out of steam, the conservatives take advantage of any opportunity to attack a government they accuse of carrying out a soft policy. So much so that in recent weeks Harris has decided to give her agenda a boost and reactivate her trips. Something that the Democratic Party is going to need a lot, which is all or nothing at stake in elections that can give the majority of Congress to the Republicans. Meetings with high-profile donors, visits to places where they had not been before or statements such as “I plan to travel around our country, talk to people, listen to citizens” are some of the actions carried out, in recent days, by the vice president. His displacement to eight different destinations, only in the last month, denotes a change in attitude in who until now was accused of traveling little. The governor of Texas affirms that his state intentionally sent two buses of immigrants to the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington. https://t.co/xak1Q3igMJ— CNN en Español (@CNNEE) September 15, 2022 The beginningsHarris’s arrival in her government, at 57, was exciting and promising. She made history early on by becoming the first woman, first African-American and first person of Asian descent to serve as Vice President of the United States. She was one of the stars of the Democratic election campaign in 2020, standing out for her enthusiasm and preparation, but her shine faded as Biden’s presidential term progressed. His assumption of complex issues, such as immigration, and his inability to carry out visits to key countries for this, such as the one made to Guatemala in June 2021, have ended up entrenching a situation in which Harris is vulnerable to public opinion. and before his own party. In fact, during this time, he has only traveled to Central America for three days despite being the epicenter of a conflictive border, the object of permanent political dispute and the place of both origin and passage of tragedies that affect millions of people. Future But he has not it was only his work in Central America that has weakened the perception of his political figure. Her visits to other countries, such as Vietnam, Singapore or France, also did not achieve the expected results and her internal work has not taken off in a convincing way for public opinion. In fact, the announcement a few days ago that Biden had tested positive for coronavirus highlighted the need and urgency of propping up a possible substitution with guarantees from the president. The 79 years of him so advise. Kamala Harris has that enormous challenge ahead of her: being able to project enough confidence so that Americans know that she is in good hands not only at this time, in her current position, but also in the event that Biden suffers a serious mishap and has to take control of the country. The task is not easy because she will have to do, against the clock, what she has not been capable of until now. And all this less than two months before the midterm elections. A challenge at the level that her position demands, the vice presidency of the United States.