CBS News
The facts about Kamala Harris’ role on immigration in the Biden administration
Following President Biden’s decision to abandon his reelection campaign and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee for president, Harris’ role on immigration has come under scrutiny.
Soon after Mr. Biden’s announcement, Republicans sought to blame Harris for the Biden administration’s woes at the U.S.-Mexico border, where American officials have reported record levels of illegal crossings in the past three years. In a phone conversation with CBS News on Saturday, former President Donald Trump said Harris presided over the “worst border ever” as “border czar,” a title her Republican detractors often give her.
Harris is all but certain to face even more criticism over the Biden administration’s record on immigration, one of American voters’ top concerns ahead of the election. And Harris does have an immigration-related role in the Biden White House, but her responsibilities on the issue are often mischaracterized.
What exactly is Harris’ immigration role?
In March 2021, when the Biden administration faced the early stages of an influx in illegal crossings at the U.S. southern border, Mr. Biden tasked Harris with leading the administration’s diplomatic campaign to address the “root causes” of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, including poverty, corruption and violence.
The region, known as Central America’s Northern Triangle, has been one of the main sources of migration to the U.S.-Mexico border over the past decade.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Harris was not asked to be the administration’s “border czar” or to oversee immigration policy and enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border. That has mainly been the responsibility of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and his department, which oversees the country’s main three immigration agencies, including Customs and Border Protection.
In reality, the only role close to that of a “border czar” under the Biden administration was held for only a few months by Roberta Jacobson, a longtime diplomat who served as coordinator for the Southwest border until April 2021.
In her immigration role, Harris’ main line of work has focused on convincing companies to invest in Central America and promoting democracy and development there through diplomacy. In March of this year, the White House announced Harris had secured a commitment from the private sector to invest over $5 billion to promote economic opportunities and reduce violence in the region.
Efforts to reduce migration by improving conditions in migrants’ home countries have always been viewed as a long-term strategy by U.S. officials. In its “root causes” framework, the Biden administration conceded the “systemic change” it envisions for Central America “will take time to achieve.”
Questions about her work on immigration
There are some legitimate questions about Harris’ work on immigration.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most non-Mexican migration to the U.S. southern border originated from the Northern Triangle. In 2021, it made sense for the administration to focus on the root cases of migration in those countries. But migration flows have changed dramatically in recent years. Record numbers of migrants have been coming from places outside of Central America, including from countries like Cuba, Colombia, China, Ecuador and Venezuela.
In fiscal year 2023, for example, Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador made up 22% of all crossings during that time period, down from 41% in fiscal year 2021, government statistics show. On the flip side, however, the administration could point to the fact that illegal crossings along the U.S. southern border by migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have decreased significantly every year since 2021.
While most of her critics have been Republicans, Harris’ work on immigration has also garnered some criticism from the left. During a visit to Guatemala in June 2021, Harris told those intending to migrate, “Do not come,” a statement that drew ire from some progressives and advocates for migrants.
As the second-highest ranking member of the Biden administration, Harris will also likely face questions over the all-time levels of unlawful border crossings reported in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Those crossings, however, have plunged this year, reaching a three-year low in June, after Mr. Biden issued an executive order banning most migrants from asylum.
CBS News
Tennessee DA accused of firing multiple times at fugitive, hitting home with woman and her 3 children inside
A district attorney in Tennessee is facing a reckless endangerment charge after shooting at a fugitive several times and hitting a home that had a woman and her three children inside.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced the grand jury charge Monday against District Attorney Chris Stanford. His district covers Van Buren and Warren counties.
The indictment says that as the incident unfolded in Smithville on Nov. 21, a bullet Stanford shot from his handgun went through a front porch patio chair, through an exterior wall and into the living room wall of the home. The woman and children weren’t hurt.
Smithville is about 60 miles southeast of Nashville.
The indictment says that Stanford fired the shot “unlawfully, intentionally and recklessly.” There was no immediate threat to him or others, he wasn’t aiming the handgun, and “just held it out and shot” without using the gun’s sights, the indictment adds.
Following his indictment, Stanford surrendered at the DeKalb County Jail and was released after posting a $10,000 bond, TBI said. A message left with Stanton’s office was not immediately returned Tuesday.
The Warren County Sheriff’s Office described the circumstances leading to the incident last month. In a social media post, it said authorities were pursuing suspects after finding three dead bodies at a house and at an adjacent building.
The suspects were sighted in DeKalb County, the sheriff’s office said. One of them was taken into custody without incident. Stanford and other law enforcement officials chased the other suspect, who was a passenger in a car, the office said.
While trying to help the suspect flee, the driver struck a homeland security officer with the car, the sheriff’s office said.
In a statement last month to CBS affiliate WTVF-TV, Stanford said he fired shots in response to the homeland security agent being hit. No one was shot when Stanford fired his gun. The homeland security officer was injured and taken to the hospital, according to a social media post by District Attorney Bryant Dunaway.
“The vehicle then drove toward me and others, accelerating quickly. I fired my service weapon in defense of myself and others at the scene. Based upon my training and the circumstances that presented themselves, I believe my actions were necessary and justified,” Stanford said.
Stanford also told the news station he has a state law enforcement certification to carry his weapon at all times.
The two suspects in the three deaths were taken into custody and charged with criminal homicide, while the driver, also taken into custody, faces felony evading arrest and aggravated assault charged, according to the sheriff’s office.
Stanford will make an appearance in court on Jan. 7, WTVF reported. Since he showed up at the scene and fired his weapon, he is now a witness and cannot prosecute the triple murder in his own county, the station reported.
CBS News
Accused mastermind of journalist’s murder wanted by Mexico — but U.S. has called him a “protected witness”
Mexico has asked the United States to extradite the suspected mastermind behind the murder of journalist Javier Valdez after he was arrested on drug charges, the attorney general said.
Damaso Lopez Serrano — who the Justice Department says is known as “Mini Lic” — is accused of ordering the 2017 killing of Valdez, an award-winning journalist and AFP contributor who covered the narcotics trade.
The alleged former high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel was arrested on Friday in Virginia on charges of trafficking fentanyl. Lopez Serrano is the son of Damaso Lopez Nunez, who launched a struggle for control of the cartel following the arrest of its leader, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Mexico’s Attorney General Alejandro Gertz described Lopez Serrano as the “mastermind” behind Valdez’s murder.
“We have already prosecuted the rest of the perpetrators and they are in jail,” he told a news conference.
Valdez was shot and killed in his car on May 15, 2017 in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan near the offices of his weekly newspaper Riodoce.
Enric Marti / AP
Investigators believe Lopez Serrano ordered the hit because he was angry about information published by Valdez about the Sinaloa Cartel’s internal power struggles.
Mexico has made several extradition requests for Lopez Serrano, who surrendered to U.S. authorities in July 2017 for drug trafficking and cooperated in exchange for a reduced sentence. At the time, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said Lopez Serrano was “believed to be the highest-ranking Mexican cartel leader ever to self-surrender in the United States.”
He was released from prison on parole in 2022.
Gertz said that Mexico had asked “on countless occasions” for Lopez Serrano to be handed over, but Washington declined because he had become a “protected witness” and “was giving them a lot of information.”
He voiced hope that with Lopez Serrano’s latest arrest “there are more than enough reasons” for the United States to finally grant Mexico’s request.
Rebecca Blackwell / AP
Wracked by violence related to drug trafficking, Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, news advocacy groups say.
Reporters Without Borders says more than 150 newspeople have been killed in Mexico since 1994 — and 2022 was one of the deadliest years ever for journalists in Mexico, with at least 15 killed.
Media workers are regularly targeted in Mexico, often in direct reprisal for their work covering topics like corruption and the country’s notoriously violent drug traffickers.
Most recently, in October, gunmen killed a journalist whose Facebook news page covered the violent western Mexico state of Michoacan. Then less than 24 hours later, an entertainment reporter in the western city of Colima was killed inside a restaurant she owned.
CHICAGO (CBS) — Two sisters have grateful hearts after they both received heart transplants at the same age—seven years apart.
Younger sister Meredith Everhart and older sister Abbey Cannon are now bonded by a genetic condition and a second chance at life.
“What’s ironic is that when she needed a heart transplant, was exactly the same age I needed a heart transplant,” said Cannon. “Seven years apart in age, seven years apart within 30 days of transplant, and our birthdays are within 30 days.”
The sisters share a special bond of getting a second chance at life, which they both received at the age of 38 years old.
Both sisters suffer from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy—otherwise known as HCM.
The genetic condition is a form of heart disease that causes the heart muscle to thicken.
In 2012, Cannon had chest pain. She was misdiagnosed in Nashville, Tennessee, and got a second opinion at Northwestern Medicine in 2016.
“Within six months, I was inpatient on an aortic balloon pump waiting for a heart,” Cannon said. “I ended up getting my heart 32 days later, So my date is February 27, 2017.”
Just months after Cannon’s transplant, Everhart was diagnosed with HCM too. She tried medication and participated in clinical trials, but her condition kept getting worse.”
“For me, it was, she’s right—I was in denial for a long time,” said Everhart, “and I didn’t want to be sick. I was in my 20s. I was in my early 30’s. I was like, this is not happening. I saw how bad she suffered.”
In May 2022, Everhart got COVID-19, and it sent her into heart failure.
She was added to the transplant list one year later.
“I got the call on January 29 of this year, 2024, and it’s been a journey,” Everhart said. “It’s been fantastic though. Northwestern has been great.”
Cannon said she can’t stress enough how important it is to become an organ donor.
“Had we not had someone that gave that most selfless gift, neither of us would be here,” she said.
Tennessee DA accused of firing multiple times at fugitive, hitting home with woman and her 3 children inside
Accused mastermind of journalist’s murder wanted by Mexico — but U.S. has called him a “protected witness”
2 sisters, 7 years apart in age, also receive heart transplants 7 years apart in Chicago
Tennessee DA accused of firing multiple times at fugitive, hitting home with woman and her 3 children inside
Accused mastermind of journalist’s murder wanted by Mexico — but U.S. has called him a “protected witness”