Biden Gives Harris Her First Major Task: Solving Border Crisis

President Joe Biden put Kamala Harris in charge of resolving a surge in migration on the U.S. southern border that’s overwhelming federal immigration authorities, handing the vice president the first major assignment of her tenure.

Biden announced Harris’s assignment on Wednesday, with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress warning of a burgeoning humanitarian crisis as growing numbers of migrant children try to enter the U.S.

“I can think of nobody who’s better qualified to do this,” Biden said at the White House. “When she speaks, she speaks for me.”

A child walks past tents at a makeshift housing camp for migrants seeking asylum hearings in Tijuana, Mexico, on March. 21.

Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg

It’s the first issue that Biden has publicly asked Harris ...