Kamala Harris' Stance on Latin America and the Caribbean

The economy continues to reign as U.S. voters’ biggest issue. However, immigration ranks as the second-largest concern, with 22 percent of those polled in a June Gallup survey saying it’s at the top of their minds. December 2023 saw the largest number of monthly migrant apprehensions at the U.S. southern border in history at just under a quarter-million.

Concerns over unprecedented immigration numbers started early in the Biden administration. In March 2021, months after the inauguration, a surge of unaccompanied minors arrived at the southern border, prompting the president to task Harris with helping reduce migration to the United States.

In what became a central issue of her vice presidency, Harris has promoted a strategy that seeks to address the “root causes” of migration, namely the lack of economic opportunities that push citizens to leave their home countries. Harris has focused on facilitating economic development and private investment in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. In 2021, when she was tasked with the issue, about 40 percent of those apprehended at the southern border were from one of these three countries.

Under Harris’ initiative, the United States offers financing, guidance, and incentives for business investing in the region, leading to $5 billion in promised investments, per the White House. About a quarter of these investments are already active in the region. Harris’ 2021 trip to Guatemala and Mexico, as well as a 2022 trip to Honduran President Xiomara Castro’s inauguration, focused on this initiative. 

Republicans frequently refer to Harris as the Biden administration’s “Border Czar,” a title she never formally held. Harris visited the U.S.-Mexico border once in June 2021 where she reiterated her commitment to solving the “root problems” of migration.

In May, she backed a bipartisan border enforcement bill that was blocked in the Senate. That bill would have provided funding for more border agents and technology, in addition to green-lighting an increase in deportations. It also would have mandated closing the border to migrants—even those who are documented or applying for asylum—if apprehensions reach specific predetermined levels. The latter part of the bill was included in a Biden executive order in June.

While in the Senate, Harris was a critic of Trump administration policies on immigration. She was the first senator to call for the resignation of then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen over the policy of family separation at the border. She authored legislation to give detained migrants access to legal resources, and she has been seen as an advocate for Dreamers, undocumented residents brought to the United States as children.

In one of her first trips as vice president, Harris visited Mexico in June 2021 where she met with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to discuss bilateral relations. At that meeting, she asked for López Obrador’s verbal support for the Biden administration’s Central America strategy. 

That meeting also touched upon the problems of drug, arms, and human smuggling. As attorney general of California, Harris built a record of fighting organized crime groups through her involvement in large arrests of Sinaloa cartel members and seizures of drugs like meth. 

She has not outlined new strategies to tackle organized crime since becoming vice president, but she does oppose Republican calls to use military force against such groups in Mexico, and she did not respond to Republican requests to designate cartels as terrorist groups. She spoke about organized crime in a congratulatory call with Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum following the country’s June elections. 

If elected president, Harris’ government will oversee the 2026 review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). In 2020, she was one of 10 senators to vote against the pact, citing concerns about a lack of protections for U.S. workers and the environment. She also opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—which included Mexico, Chile and Peru—while on the campaign trail for her California Senate seat in 2016. President Trump withdrew the United States in 2021 from the TPP shortly after his inauguration. 

What’s one area where Harris has diverged from Biden? Cuba. Before becoming vice president, she indicated support for ending the embargo. During Biden’s term, she joined him in condemning the regime’s violence and backing the imposition of increased sanctions on its leaders. 

When it comes to Venezuela, she supported the administration’s expansion of Temporary Protected Status for migrants from the South American country. She has opposed the use of military intervention to ensure that aid gets into the country. As a senator in 2019, she criticized violent repression carried out by Nicolás Maduro’s regime. More recently, she called upon Maduro to respect the conditions of the Barbados Accords, an agreement aimed at setting up free and fair 2024 elections in the country.

Harris’ fourth and most recent trip to the region was in March 2024, when she visited the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. While there, she highlighted the Biden administration’s delivery of federal aid for hurricane recovery. Harris was confronted with protests in support of independence and against a controversial tax law. 

Harris, who is of Jamaican descent, also co-hosted the U.S-Caribbean Leaders Meeting in June 2023, announcing more than $100 million in funding from the United States Agency for International Development for the region.