WASHINGTON (CN) — In the face of criticism from Republican lawmakers over what they see as an immigration crisis, Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to the southern U.S. border later this week.
Harris will visit El Paso, Texas, on Friday and will be joined by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, her office announced Wednesday. Further details on Harris' itinerary were not made available.
The trip comes after President Joe Biden tasked Harris with mitigating a surge in migrants crossing the southern border, which many Republican lawmakers have decried as a crisis caused by a perceived welcoming of immigrants under the Biden administration.
“She is the most qualified person to do it,” the president said in March, highlighting Harris’ experience running the California Attorney General’s Office, fighting organized crime and working on human rights issues.
The U.S. has seen a dramatic spike in the number of undocumented migrants encountered by border officials since Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, although the numbers are still lower than they were at various points during the Trump administration.
During the first formal press conference of his presidency, Biden noted there was a 31% increase in those seeking refuge in the U.S. in 2019, while that number had dropped to a 28% increase during his first months in office. Seasonal advantages to crossing long swaths of desert in colder months drove refugees to come when they did, he said, and because of the circumstances in their home countries. Biden said those circumstances were exacerbated because his predecessor Donald Trump eliminated funding to address the root causes of why people left their home countries to come to America.
Harris, in her first international trip as vice president two weeks ago, announced significant investment in Guatemalan infrastructure and crime enforcement. She said U.S. federal officials would help train local law enforcement in conducting corruption investigations and the Biden administration will make investments in Guatemalan agricultural businesses, affordable housing and a women's empowerment initiative.
The overarching goal of the policy, Harris said, is to “help Guatemalans find help at home.” She sought to clear up messaging that some, including Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, have called “confusing” as it relates to U.S. immigration policy.
“I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: do not come,” she said in Guatemala City on June 7. “Do not come.”
Republicans like Congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina have called for Harris to visit Homeland Security field offices along the border to see the migrant arrivals herself. In a budget hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee last week, Norman asked Mayorkas why Harris or Biden still had not been to the southern border.
“I am the secretary of Homeland Security and it is my responsibility to manage the border at the direction of the president and vice president and I have visited the border on multiple occasions,” Mayorkas said.
Norman's remarks were the latest in a monthslong series of attacks on Harris for not yet visiting the area.
In an interview with NBC's Lester Holt two weeks ago, the vice president urged patience for resolving the situation at the southern border.
“There’s not going to be a quick fix, we’re not going to see an immediate return, but we’re going to see progress and real work is going to take time to manifest itself,” Harris said.
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