Kamala Harris and the 'border tsar' moniker explained
If you haven't already heard the phrase 'border tsar' levied against Kamala Harris, the chances are you will do soon.
The moniker is quickly becoming the favourite attack line from Republicans trying to tarnish Ms Harris's reputation on immigration.
Searches for the term have spiked this year, as per Google Trends data, while Donald Trump's campaign chief has acknowledged it's the party's best line of attack against Ms Harris.
Republicans have adopted it more and more in recent weeks.
"Kamala had one job," Nikki Haley told the crowd at the party's National Convention in Milwaukee this month.
"One job. And that was to fix the border. Now imagine her in charge of the entire country."
This week, Mr Trump's running mate JD Vance said: "The border crisis is a Kamala Harris crisis."
And speaking last night in North Carolina, Mr Trump himself said: "Under border tsar Harris, millions of aliens are pouring into the country."
The label is starting to stick to Ms Harris like glue, but where does the term come from, and is it fair?
Biden's thankless task
The term has its roots back in March 2021, when Joe Biden announced he would be giving Ms Harris the task of coordinating diplomatic relationships to address the "root causes" of migration into the US.
It appeared to be a thankless task.
The assignment was a long-term one. Nobody in the White House was expecting the vice president to solve border surges quickly.
At best, any benefits from addressing these root causes would take time to appear. At worst, Ms Harris would become the face of the border crisis, one of the biggest political vulnerabilities of the Biden administration.
Is Harris in charge?
From the moment Ms Harris was given her new task, she was described as the person "in charge of the migration crisis" by the media.
But this isn't true.
That job belongs to - and always has belonged to - the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the secretary of health and human services, Xavier Becerra.
Ms Harris was never put in charge of the border or immigration policy, nor was she involved in overseeing law-enforcement efforts responding to the crisis.
The White House had to field frequent questions on what Ms Harris's role exactly defined but that sometimes proved tricky.
At one point, senior officials said Ms Harris would "oversee a whole-of-government approach" to dealing with migration.
Harris's missteps
At the same time, it didn't help that Ms Harris made some gaffes that would come back to bite her.
She was criticised by immigrant rights activists for a speech in June 2021 in which she urged "folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come".
She was also repeatedly criticised for not visiting the US-Mexico border and for a confusing interview with NBC's Lester Holt in which she dismissed questions about it.
A record that speaks for itself
The irony here - and the one that Ms Harris'd campaign team will be desperately trying to push - is that her record on immigration throughout her career has been widely praised.
Her first ever bill as a senator was to give immigrants detained while trying to enter the country access to lawyers. That came shortly after Mr Trump had enacted a travel ban on citizens from Muslim-majority countries.
She also publicly supported the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects undocumented youth brought to the United States as children from deportation.
As a prosecutor, she opposed federal legislation that would have criminalised providing legal assistance to unauthorised immigrants.
As vice president her task has been tough, but June 2024 saw the lowest number of illegal border crossings into America since January 2021.
Will anything change?
Probably not.
As shown by Mr Trump's rally in North Carolina last night, the term isn't going anytime soon.
Immigration is a top concern for US voters, and it might serve Ms Harris well to make a clear pitch on how she will deal with the issue if she becomes president.