Texas Senator Ted Cruz on Sunday teased US Vice President Kamala Harris on her new position as chair of the National Space Council, re-tweeting a CNN report on the VP's recently-announced position and offering an "alien" pun.
"She heard there was a crisis of millions of aliens coming illegally....", Cruz tweeted, in an apparently humorous parallel to the naming conventions for both migrants and space dwellers, with illegal immigrants frequently referred to as "aliens".
Earlier in April, the Biden administration reportedly directed that illegal migrants must not be called "aliens" and "illegal aliens", but rather "undocumented noncitizens", while also replacing the word "assimilation" with "integration".
Harris is under fire for failing to travel to the US-Mexico border amid the migrant crisis given that she is in charge of the Biden administration's efforts to address an increase in the flow of migrants flocking into the United States.
She continues to receive criticism for her lack of action to tackle what many consider to be a migrant 'crisis'. In late April, Ted Cruz joked that Harris' "GPS got confused" when she travelled to New Hampshire although she had not visited the southern US border, as the situation there, according to many observers, is “spiraling out of control”.
The vice president was met with protesters who called on her to do something about the migrant situation. So far, the only apparent move she has made to deal with the crisis was to arrange online talks with Mexican President Manuel Lopez Obrador to discuss "root causes of migration".
Recently, her resume received one more position, as she was appointed to lead the National Space Council. According to CNN, she outlined her priorities to be STEM education, cybersecurity, supporting sustainable development of commercial space activity, diversity in the workforce, and promoting peaceful norms and responsible behavior in space.
"As I've said before: In America, when we shoot for the moon, we plant our flag on it. I am honored to lead our National Space Council", Harris tweeted on 1 May, after it had been revealed that she had been appointed to lead the body.