Vice President Kamala Harris is set to make her first trip down to the U.S.-Mexico border Friday.
She will visit El Paso, Texas and tour a migrant processing center and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Facility where she is expected to speak with migrants.
The vice president will also attend an operational briefing and speak with advocates from faith-based nonprofit organizations, shelter and legal service providers.
Her trip will conclude with a press conference where she will take questions from the media.
“[Harris’ trip to the border] is really about building on the work that she has been doing,” Harris’ chief spokesperson Symone Sanders told NBC News. “This is not happening in a vacuum and it is not just to go and see.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and Democratic Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar are expected to join Harris for the trip.
President Joe Biden announced in March that Harris would be tasked with leading diplomatic efforts to find solutions to the issues driving migrants to the U.S.
Harris’ aides have emphasized that her immigration plan focuses on addressing the root causes of migration, such as improving the economic and humanitarian conditions for those in Central and South American countries who feel forced to flee to the U.S.
“What happens at the border matters, and is directly connected to what is happening in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras,” Sanders told the Associated Press. “It is directly connected to the work of addressing the root causes of migration.”
This visit comes after mounting criticism from the right that the vice president has not yet visited the border, as Biden’s first few months in office have seen a record number of migrants attempting to cross the southern border.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there were more than 180,000 encounters on the Mexican border in May, the most since March 2000.
Republicans have used those numbers to classify the administration as weak on border security.
On a recent trip to Guatemala, Harris had a blunt message for migrants “thinking about making the dangerous trip to the United States: Do not come.”
She emphasized that her goal is to “help Guatemalans find hope at home.”
Others have criticized the trip as politically motivated, as Harris’ visit was announced shortly after former President Donald Trump said he would journey to the border with Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other GOP lawmakers.
“It’s clear the sole reason Kamala Harris is going to the border is because President Trump announced his trip. No one disputes this,” Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington said. “That’s not leadership, that’s political panic.”
Sanders told reporters Thursday that “this administration does not take their cues from Republican criticism, nor from the former President of the United States of America.”
Sanders added that Harris always planned on going to the border “when it was appropriate” and the timing of this trip “is what made sense for the vice president’s schedule, but also, for our partners on the ground.”
RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images
Harris says Texas trip is about causes and effects of migration
Vice President Harris has arrived in Texas. After she landed, she told reporters that this trip is about dealing with causes and effects.
“We are here today to address and to talk about what has brought people to the U.S. border and to address the root causes which cause people to leave and often flee their home country,” Harris said as she arrived in Texas.
She said that this trip to Texas is building off the work she did in Mexico and Guatemala.
Harris said that visiting Mexico and Guatemala was about “addressing the causes” and this visit in Texas is about “looking at the effects of what we have seen happening in Central America.”
“I’m glad to be here, it was always the plan to come here, and I think we are going to have a good and productive day,” she added.
Harris is now speaking with Border Patrol agents at the El Paso Central Processing Center. According to Associated Press reporter Alexandra Jaffe, the vice president is discussing issues such as budgets and how the processing works.
Harris chats with agents at the El Paso Central Processing Center. She’s asking them questions about how the processing works here, budgets and other issues. pic.twitter.com/XAilJ7Kaek
— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) June 25, 2021
Protestors with “Trump Won” signs greet Harris at border
As Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, protestors gathered with signs that read “Trump Won” and “Latinos Somos Republicano.”
“Kamala, you came a little too late,” Congressional candidate Irene Armendariz Jackson said. “We have had this crisis for years. We need solutions, we don’t need you parading at the Border Patrol station and acting like you care.”
“Americans matter, America matters,” she added.
