Vice President Kamala Harris is reportedly planning to visit the U.S.-Mexico border amid criticism that she resisted visiting it since being tapped by President Joe Biden to help stop the flow of northern migration.
Politico reported on Wednesday that Harris “will make a stop in El Paso, Texas on Friday,” along with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
As the outlet notes, Harris’ trip comes just days before former President Donald Trump and a group of Congressional reporters are expected to visit the border.
The news comes after Harris’ first foreign trip as vice president when she visited Guatemala and Mexico in connection with her mission of working with leaders to help address the causes of northern migration.
However, she faced several questions around why she had not yet gone to the border.
During an interview with NBC News, Harris was asked when she planned to go to the border. She responded, “I – at some point – you know – we are going to the border. We’ve been to the border. So this whole – this whole – this whole thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.”
However, NBC’s Lester Holt pressed back noting, “You haven’t been to the border.”
“I haven’t been to Europe. And I mean, I don’t – I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border,” she shot back.
Earlier this month, Axios reported that the number of illegal border crossings this fiscal year was at its highest point since 2006 with four months left.
Some Republican lawmakers were quick to share their responses to the news:
Thank you President Trump for getting Vice President Harris to finally go to the southern border.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) June 23, 2021
She would never go without you announcing your trip first.
It took:
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) June 23, 2021
600,000 + illegal crossings
463,000lbs + of drugs seized
Dozens of U.S. Senators and House members traveling to the southern border
And mounting pressure from the American people for Kamala to finally schedule a trip to the border.
Trump also took credit for Harris’ trip. In a statement, he claimed, “After months of ignoring the crisis at the Southern Border, it is great that we got Kamala Harris to finally go and see the tremendous destruction and death that they’ve created — a direct result of Biden ending my very tough but fair Border policies.”
“Harris and Biden were given the strongest Border in American history. And now, it is by far the worst in American history. If Governor Abbot and I weren’t going next week, she would have never gone,” he added.
NEW TRUMP statement: "After months of ignoring the crisis at the Southern Border, it is great that we got Kamala Harris to finally go and see the tremendous destruction and death that they've created—a direct result of Biden ending my very tough but fair Border policies…" pic.twitter.com/NxEEYvhpVO
— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) June 23, 2021
While Republicans have criticized Harris for not visiting the border, she and her aides have sought to distance her from the view that she is in charge of the border.
According to CNN, “Harris and her aides have emphasized internally that they want to focus on conditions in Central America that push migrants to the US southern border, as President Joe Biden tasked her to do.”